Review: BLOOD OF MY BLOOD at Royal Court Theatre

Talulah (Jodie Campbell) is a feisty, proud, modern black woman with a confident, no nonsense view of racism and its historical context. She has flown-in from her home in west London which she left mere days after the death of her beloved grandfather. Consulting the family Bible and particularly the ancestral tree pencilled inside its front cover, she is intent on communing with her cotton-picking forebears from whom she urgently needs an answer to a very real present day dilemma.

As Joy Nesbitt’s play jumps back and forth between the present and the era of Abraham Lincoln’s warring states, we catch a glimpse of what life was like for those enslaved workers caught between the uncertainty of promises contained in the “Emancipation Proclamation” and continued acceptance of their “protected” status as chattels, wholly owned, dependent upon, and beholden to their white, land-owning Southern masters. In a world where Ginnie (Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ) was not only owned but developed a relationship with Dr John Good (with whom she bore 5 children), the conflicting requirements of affection, responsibility and survival, paint a far less blunt and more nuanced picture. It gently demands our focus, respect and understanding. This realisation for Talulah manifests through a surprise meeting with worldly-wise PhD educated estate resident Niecey (a beautifully crafted performance by Karene Peter who’ll be looking at supporting actress nods come awards season). Her counselling of respect for those who went before and were presented with tough decisions in far from ideal circumstances, lands with gentle dignity and insightfulness without ever becoming didactic — a thread which runs throughout Nesbitt’s writing which requires most cast members to play a distinct but related character in both the present and the past.

Irrespective of the headline subject matter, I thoroughly enjoyed BLOOD OF MY BLOOD. The characters and performances are sensitively honed, the writing taut (rather than tautological) and the direction by Tatenda Shamiso, genuinely considered and well realised. Tilda Swinton may be pulling ‘em in with her star billing at the bigger space downstairs, but with humanity and supernatural edginess in plentiful supply in the space above, BLOOD OF MY BLOOD proved a genuinely compelling and thought-provoking evening.