Written by James Alston and directed by Imy Wyatt Corner, Scarlet Sunday is a two-hander play about obsession, dark secrets and the cult of celebrity.
The play starts on a scorching hot day. Art curator and blogger Yasmin (Sorcha Kennedy) meets Ava (Camilla Aiko) in a popular busy cafe for an interview. After a bit of deliberation over ice lattes versus americano’s on a hot day, we learn that Ava’s father is the late great artist, Ray Blackwood.
We see in this first awkward meeting, Ava is very apprehensive to go through with the interview. She mentions articles that Yasmin wrote that were pretty much for click-bait, where she takes selfies of herself in Tate Modern. Yasmin reassures her that she will really do justice to the famous artist in her article. She admits to being a super fan of Blackwood’s work since studying art history in university.
Cut to a meeting between the two at Blackwood’s studio that will reveal the truly dark side to the famous artist where he was abusive to his daughters.
James Alston writing is fantastic in this piece and makes us question if we can forgive an artist when we know how dark their character was for the sake of their work. The play successfully dismantles the myth that the artist is blameless because they painted some exceptional paintings.
The performances by Aiko and Kennedy are compelling and convincing from their individual perspectives. You are left with empathy for both. You can understand why Yasmin does not want to hear the bad stuff about her hero. However, Ava’s reality of the father she knew, tarnishes any work he might have produced.
Many artists had dark pasts. Picasso was known to be an abusive misogynist in his relationships with the women portrayed in his work and yet his work is celebrated. It was in the early 2000’s when his grand-daughter opened up about the suffering the family endured due to his abusive narcissistic behaviour.
Alston’s Scarlet Sunday is an important piece of work to highlight the cult around artists that behaved very badly and are still renowned today.
Scarlet Sunday runs at the Omnibus Theatre until the 17th March. You can book tickets here.
