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| Scars of a whipped slave (April 2, 1863, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA. Original caption: "Overseer Artayou Carrier whipped me. I was two months in bed sore from the whipping. My master come after I was whipped; he discharged the overseer. The very words of poor Peter, taken as he sat for his picture." (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| Statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. located in Kelly Ingram Park, Birmingham, Alabama. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Today is the final day of the 2012 Harare
International Festival of the Arts (HIFA).
This year’s festival has been marked by some first-rate performances,
domestic and international, and the closing day is usually the day the headline
acts show their best. For me, though,
the highlight of HIFA is an Irish play, The
Cambria, which tells of the American abolitionist and escaped slave
Frederick Douglas’s flight to Ireland and England in August 1847 aboard The
Cambria, a paddle steamer that was the flagship of the Cunard Line.
Douglas was an escaped slave, subject to being
captured and returned to bondage, but when his famous and popular biography was
published, making him a potent symbol of the northern abolitionist movement,
slaveholders put a large bounty on his head – dead or alive. Supporters assisted him in getting passage on
The Cambria, where he traveled under an assumed name. In England and Ireland, he appeared as a
speaker, sharing the podium with the noted anti-slavery activist Daniel O’Connell. In a letter Douglas wrote from Ireland in
1845, he said, “. . . people here in Ireland measure and esteem men according to
their moral and intellectual worth, and not according to the colour of their
skin.” This is also the closing line of
the play, and for history buffs, the similarity to Dr Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I
have a dream that one day in America, people will be judged by the content of
their character and not the color of their skin,” resonates in a deeply
stirring manner.
Writer-performer Donal O’Kelly and performer Sorcha
Fox give absolutely stunning performances as they play multiple roles,
transporting audiences to the decks, cabins, and holds of The Cambria, complete
with the ominous fog of the North Atlantic.
Due to an foot injury Fox suffered after coming to Harare, making it
difficult for her to walk, last minute adjustments had to be made with the two
seated throughout the two-act play. If I
hadn’t been told this I would never have known.
The essence of good drama, as with good writing, is
getting an audience to suspend disbelief.
O’Kelly and Fox are masters at doing this. The transformation as O’Kelly switches from
Douglas, a black character, to the slave owner Dodd, is nothing short of magical,
and Fox plays adult and child characters effectively, and even comes across
credibly when she’s representing male characters.
Only someone with a heart of granite could sit
through this performance without being moved – to tears even – so profound is
the story and so flawless the acting. This
is Irish drama at its very best; great script, good direction, but most of all,
top level performances by two of Ireland’s finest. The
Cambria has played to rave reviews on the New York stage, and now it has
come to Harare and HIFA. Five stars to
the performers, five stars to the material, and thanks to the organizers who
had the foresight to bring this great play here.
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