And I And Silence

Synopsis

Jamie doesn't like Dee and they both don't like being in jail. But as time passes, these teenagers forge a plan. And they've got to practice hard, because if they don't get it right, they'll lose everything: the outside is even more dangerous to their friendship than the inside. Exploring the fierce dreams of youth and the brutal reality of adulthood in 1950's segregated America, And I and Silence is a dark, often humorous portrait of desire and daring. Performance length: Approximately 80 minutes.

Our Review:

Jo Caird - 13 May 2011

The final play in the Finborough’s trilogy of works by women writers, Naomi Wallace’s And I and Silence is the story of best friends, Jamie and Dee, young women struggling against deprivation and despair in 1950s America. The action shifts back and forth between then, the point at which Jamie and Dee first become friends while serving time for murder, and now, nine years after that initial meeting, where we observe the women’s lives on the outside.

The two time frames are beautifully integrated, both textually and in terms of director Caitlin McLeod’s elegant staging. The two pairs of actors, playing present and past Dee and Jamie (Sally Oliver and Cat Simmons, and Lauren Crace and Cherrelle Skeete respectively), tag-team on and offstage, sharing more of each others’ space as the play go on. Cecelia Carey’s ingenious design, along with Elliot Griggs’s flawless lighting, sees the Finborough’s intimate play...

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Latest User Review

Gareth James - 20 May 2011:

Well, the critics sent me back to the Finborough to see this short Naomi Wallace play set in and out of a women’s prison in the US in the 50′s. We diverge again….. The play consists of 12 short scenes, alternating between a prison cell in 1950 and a room ‘on the outside’ in 1959 with the same two characters, white Dee and black Jamie. It examines their relationship and their attitude to the world and its attitude to them, their race and sexuality. The inside is tough but the outside’s even tougher and its the outside that breaks them. The performances – Lauren Crace as young Dee and Sally Oliver as older Dee; Cherrelle Skeete as young Jamie and Cat Simmons as older Jamie – are outstanding. They really inhabit these characters and develop them as well as they can, given the material they have to work with, in such a short time. It’s very well staged by Caitlin McLeod on a simple but effective set by Cecilia Carey which doubles up as cell and room. My problem with the piece is that it seems unfinished, lacking substance with obtuse dialogue. It tells you a story but not the background to the story or the underlying motivations of the characters and has limited psychological depth. I felt as if it was work in progress rather than the finished article. The title comes from an Emily Dickinson poem, but its connection with the play is beyond me, I’m afraid. It’s good to be back at the Finborough, though, with new aircon and a bar that’s finally open. Their next show is the London premiere of a 60′s Broadway musical – well, you could never accuse them of being unambitious or narrow in their programming! I’ll be there…....

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