Keeley Lane writes her first review for us, Bag Lady by Marcia Layne, at The West Yorkshire Playhouse: Director- Amanda Huxtable, Performer-Flo Wilson …
I went to see Bag Lady at The WYP on 29th October, the first night of their Leeds run. ‘Bag Lady’ is produced by Hidden Gems Productions who pride themselves on creating productions of rarely told Black British stories; a timely choice of play then for the WYP’s October ‘A Play, a Pie and a Pint’ session in celebration of Black History Month.
This one woman show was performed in the bar area of WYP with a simple set of Eve’s discarded clothes and objects strewn across the floor, some of which we later learn that she places meaning on, and some of which she wishes she could rid of their meaning. This messy stage filled with the clobber of a woman with a fractured mental state was effective in creating the environment which this seemingly homeless character inhabited.
The bar setting was intimate and suited the production perfectly though there was an unfortunate distraction from the customers in the restaurant area. But in all honesty the engaging performance of Flo Wilson’s Eve – or Evelyn – was so captivating that it made exterior sounds such as the cashing up of the till a mild nuisance. The audience’s eyes and attention were fixed on her as we followed her on both her emotional and physically journey, as she moved around the stage throwing bits of discarded clothing around her and played with the freedom of a child with her dead brothers’ toy car.
Wilson’s performance overall had a dynamic and at times aggressive approach. The character jumped from the fragile and weak, the ranting lunatic, to the defiant victim. The first major event in the piece was the revelation of another being – perhaps a ghost, an apparition, or just a delusion. Later we would discover this was a cognitive image projected of her lost brother. However I felt these moments were let down by the music interjections which came back every time the character had another episode, and was a distraction. For me, the use of the music didn’t work, it just wasn’t necessary and actually took me out of the moment. When the first cue played I thought it might be being used to introduce a more physical and abstract notion, or to move the piece along, but this wasn’t the case.
The central issues of the play – mental health, identity, war and domestic violence – run fluidly throughout and are handled beautifully and honestly by Wilson. Eve has been sectioned before and doesn’t want to be again. Her back story makes one presume her mental state is a result of her life experiences, (I don’t want to ruin too much of her story for you) and I think it probably is – she’s had it pretty rough. This is perhaps a criticism I do have, that too much has happened to her, it becomes a bit difficult to relate to someone who has had what seems an unrealistic amount of heartache and difficulty in their life. Though I’m sure some people have been through all these things in one lifetime, it slightly grated on me that may be they were packing too much in.
Being a victim of racial prejudice drives much of Eve’s anger, or it seems to. This racial prejudice was a powerful force behind the narrative and rightly so, it’s integral to the piece. I did however find some of this slightly alienating. I felt like I wanted the anger to be about more than that – I wanted the anger to spread across more – about being a single Mum, suffering with mental health, being an ‘outsider’, feeling victimised etc (which of course, I understand comes from her ethnicity – but also other factors). Please don’t get me wrong I feel huge empathy for victims of any racial prejudice and disgust at the perpetrators, I just wanted the anger to come from more than that, and for me it didn’t. There were some very genius moments in the writing and it was powerfully delivered, though I think certain moments could have been harder hitting, perhaps with a change of pace.
These Big issues were laced with lovely moments of humour. My particular favourite was the mention of the different Afro-Caribbean hairstyles and the deliberation of whether to have a weave, braids, a hair piece etc. This is something all women can relate to but made me laugh particularly hard as quite recently I was tasked the job of unpicking my friends weave which she promised would take ‘no longer than an hour’ but took over three hours, for her to then want one back in only days later. I also enjoyed the ‘different hats’ Wilson used to speak with members of the passing public as she tried to sell ‘part of herself’ through the objects she owned – a broad Yorkshire, a ‘Rude Girl’ and ‘Caribbean’ voice are all used in her approach to the potential buyers.
It feels like a piece that has evolved over time and Wilson has clearly ‘found’ the character of Eve. For me it made me question what I was watching and what it means to be human – a thoroughly thought provoking piece asking some very important questions to the audience, most poignantly whether we can measure the depths of a person by the colour of their skin. I strongly advise you to catch this before the week is out and it makes its way down to London.