White Witch is written by pioneering Jamaican playwright Barry Reckord, who was the first Black Briton to have a play staged at the Royal Court. Directed by Joseph Charles, White Witch runs at Bloomsbury Theatre from 7 – 18 September.
Based in Haiti the play is based on the real-life Annie Palmer (played by Georgina Baillie), a “witch” and murderer of Irish and British descent. This is a story of love, cruelty and revenge cast against the backdrop of the Atlantic slave trade in 18th century Jamaica.
The backstory to the play is Annie falls in love with a Black man, which results in terrible consequences to their forbidden affair. Set around Rose Hall, Jamaica against the backdrop of the 18th century slave trade, the play follows Annie Palmer, who has been married off to a plantation owner following her scandalous affair with a Black man. Incensed by the death of her lover and her own brutal treatment, she rebels against her marriage, and a string of vengeful murders create murmurs about witchcraft.
All the drama is confined to the drawing room of Palmer’s 18th-century Jamaican estate (designed by Francis Johnson). Slave owner Simon Palmer (Robert Maskell) has returned to the plantation with a new wife, Georgina Baillie’s Annie. Robert Maskell’s portrayal of the creepy slave owner is cringe-inducing when he groping the slave women and worse when he is whipping a slave woman.
Baillie’s performance as Annie is flat, two-dimensional and unconvincing. A lot of slapstick “Carry on” sexual performances that are painful to watch because of their comedic cheap humour intentions.
In contrast, Natasha Springer, who plays the maid Chloe gives an emotional and convincing performance. She has amazing stage presence.
This was the first performance I attended since before 2019 lockdown and it was exhilarating to see live performance again. Admittedly, whilst most the humour went over my head (not knowing the back story before I saw the show), it was generally well received by the audience and there was a lot of laughter in the theatre.
This I believe was down to the superior performance of Natasha Springer (Chloe), Okon Jones (Dawes), Judith Jacob (Princess), Charles Tomlin (Rhone) and Nathan Thomas (Sammy). I wish there had been more focus on them in the play.
White Witch runs at Bloomsbury Theatre from 7 – 18 September.
