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The Swallowing Dark


After its positive reception in Liverpool, Lizzie Nunnery’s play ‘The Swallowing Dark’, starring Wil Johnson and Allyson Ava-Brown, came to London for a short run in November.


As huge fans of Wil’s work, Hotminute’s Enam (see her recent interview with Wil here www.hotminutemag.co.uk/2011/10/ wil-johnson/) and I made our way to Theatre 503 in Battersea for a Sunday evening performance. We both agreed to go in with very little knowledge of the storyline, as that way we could get swept away in the performance. Little did we know just how amazing it would be.


Upon entering the tiny theatre, we were completely transported from the world of the Chelsea v Liverpool match being shown live at the time one floor below us, to a stage set as what felt like a stark interrogation room.


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The play exclusively revolves around Martha and Canaan, mainly focusing on their dialogues, and, occasionally, their separate moments, with Paul Robinson’s perfect set production moving the narrative from the interview room to both character’s respective homes, whilst interlacing these with nightmarish recollections and dream- like digital scenes.


Wil Johnson played the role of Canaan, a Zimbabwean seeking asylum in Britain after escaping from Robert Mugabe’s regime. Canaan seeks to find a safe haven for him and his son. But his new life in Liverpool is full of nothing but challenges, in integrating to life there, where he felt unwelcome, in dealing with the authorities investigating his right to be here, and in coming to grips with a young teenage son seemingly drifting away from him.


Actress Allyson Ava-Brown played his Liverpudlian case-worker Martha, a woman who comes across as having a steely outward façade, struggling with balancing her gut instincts with the facts before her in deciding the legitimacy of Canaan’s asylum case, amongst the hundreds of others she deals with day-to-day.


Both performers delivered astoundingly explosive performances. Wil’s character’s storylike account of his back-story had the audience hanging for every word, and Ava’s Martha was pitched perfectly, from her reactions to Canaan to her fraught yet private attempts at dealing with her personal turmoil, which felt achingly real. The combination of The Swallowing Dark’s moving subject matter, its actors’ intense deliveries as well as the brilliant set production and direction made for a potent play that had both Enam and I enthralled throughout, and, at times, left us in floods of tears.


An absolutely HOT production.


www.lizzienunnery.co.uk Words: Rachel S.


Photography: Christian Smith.


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