Reviews 2004
Reviews 2004
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by George Boyd, directed by David Collins
Obsidian Theatre Company, Factory Studio Theatre, Toronto
May 12-30, 2004
Consecrated Ground, the 1999 play by black Nova Scotian author George Boyd, deals with the destruction in 1960s of Africville, a part of Halifax inhabited by African Canadians for 150 years. It shares the theme of the loss of a piece of black history with Djanet Sears’ far superior The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God. In every other way, Boyd’s play is disappointing memorial to a tragic event.
Interested in its waterfront real estate, Halifax allowed Africville to go to ruin and then bulldozed it for being a problem. First residents were denied running water and plumbing, then a dump was sited next door, then an abattoir. In Boyd’s play the people we meet are not characters so much as rhetorical positions about whether to fight for Africville or not. Since their positions do not change until the play’s final moments, Boyd does not develop an argument so much as endlessly repeat it.
Shakura S’Aida as Clarice, whose roots are in Africville, Kevin Hanchard as her outsider husband Willem and Nigel Shawn Williams as the community preacher do their best to fill in the sketchy outlines of their characters. Norman C. Owen is quite out of his depth as the young white welfare worker used by the city to persuade the Africville residents to move. Both Boyd’s play and the theatre program are too short on details about the rise and fall of Africville--a real shame since the more you learn, the more you realize its history should not be forgotten.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2004-05-20.
Photo: Kevin Hanchard and Shakura S'Aida. ©2004 Obsidian Theatre Company.
2004-05-20
Consecrated Ground