Blues For An Alabama Sky – National Theatre, London

Pearl Cleage’s tragi-comedy Blues for an Alabama Sky makes for powerful viewing at the National Theatre. With a strong ensemble cast and all of the precarious glamour and ever-present hardship of the Harlem Renaissance.

Blues For An Alabama Sky

The Harlem Renaissance is a period which endlessly inspires us even a century later. The jazz, the poetry, the art. New connections and ways of living forged by a Great Migration away from the Southern states. Nascent social movements of various types, sometimes at odds with each other. And the feeling, in common with the Jazz Age more generally, of partying on the precipice of the abyss. Or to ward off the abyss, perhaps. A frenetic energy, a time of hopes and dreams quickly arising and as quickly dashed.

It is in this world which Pearl Cleage set her 1995 play, Blues for an Alabama Sky. It is in many ways a very traditional play. The action is confined (more or less) to a couple of interior spaces. An ensemble cast works their way towards a climax with all necessary foreshadowing. Comedy and tragedy each play their part. Its historic setting and powerful themes, delving as they do into human nature, have however aged well. This revival at the National Theatre, directed by Lynette Linton, is the best thing I’ve seen there in a while.

Bringing Harlem To The South Bank

From the time I saw the set I had a feeling that Blues for an Alabama Sky was going to be good. Frankie Bradshaw’s design is a large, cutaway building located in a Black neighbourhood in Harlem. There’s a great eye for detail, and a clever rotation of the set to pivot different parts of the building to the forefront as the action moves there. In this building we first meet Angel Allen (Samira Wiley), newly dumped and fired, and drowning her sorrows with best friend Guy Jacobs (Giles Terera), an openly gay costume designer waiting for Josephine Baker to call him to Paris. Next door lives nervous Delia Patterson (Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo), nonetheless a fierce advocate for family planning. And the quartet is completed by Sam Thomas (Sule Rimi), a doctor who delivers babies by day and parties by night.

Can they continue on as they are – drinking champagne, putting the world to rights, name-dropping Harlem Renaissance celebrities like Langston Hughes? No of course not, because then we wouldn’t have a play. So the action is driven forward by Leland Cunningham (Osy Ikhile), a widower and new arrival from Alabama who is taken with Angel, or at least what he projects onto her. His inflexible and conservative views are at odds with the modern outlook all the other characters espouse in some form, and the tensions must come to a head (with tragic consequences).

Final Thoughts On Blues For An Alabama Sky

The wonderful thing about this production is how strong the ensemble is. Wiley and Terera are a perfect pair, playing out the well-worn dynamic of gay man and fragile young woman, both outsiders, but with a real talent that gives the characters a poignant immediacy. Adékoluẹjo is so charming as Delia, sheltered compared with the other characters and seeming unsure of herself, while nonetheless determinedly going after what she wants. Sam is less of a caricatured role, and is played to perfection by Rimi (who we last saw in Jitney), all charm and vibrancy as his character begins to see new opportunities for his future. The contrast with Ikhile’s Leland, stolid and unamused by all he sees in the big city, is stark.

The remainder of the cast have small roles, playing neighbours and appearing for musical scene changes. They are nonetheless an excellent addition and bring this fictional Harlem to life. And Bradshaw’s costumes are perfection, particularly in dressing the wonderful Guy as he dreams up confections for Josephine Baker in Paris. It’s an immersive production, perhaps aided by somewhat languid direction from Linton. By the end I was rooting for my favourite characters, even in the face of all that foreshadowing. The resolution, as someone who likes closure and hates open endings in plays and films, was satisfying.

I highly recommend going to see Blues for an Alabama SKy. It’s a nice opportunity to see an American work fully brought to life on the British stage. The acting is excellent and the whole a wonderful package. Don’t miss out. And if you do go, grab yourself a copy of the programme, which has interesting articles as well as reproducing various poems and artworks of the Harlem Renaissance.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 4.5/5

Blues for an Alabama Sky on until 5 November 2022