A good play that allows Odeke to promote the working-class and womanhood
Anne Odeke’s Princess Essex opens with the staff of well-to-do Mrs Bugle singing, ‘I do like to be beside the seaside’, with her maid Joanna at the front, who introduces us to her hometown of Southend with news that we are not beside the seaside because the water is an estuary – ‘That’s the River Thames’ – she roars, then updates us on who Southenders hate: people from Kent and Cockneys. writes Michael Holland.
Joanna escorts Mrs Bugle to the town’s Kursaal, a wonderful place of entertainment and joy for locals and visitors down from London. The Great Batwa is the latest attraction, a pygmy brought from Africa by the intrepid explorer, Colonel Harris, to be paraded around for the rich and the paying public. He is a savage dressed in a grass skirt who can only grunt and eat scraps of bread thrown at him.
Joanna, a black woman, sees herself in Batwa, feels sorry for his plight and sets out on a mission to rescue him. When she manages to get him alone she finds a well-dressed, well-spoken man who is in no need of being rescued, and puts poor Joanna in her place by calling her a half-caste with no real roots.
While at the Kursaal, Joanna hears that there are plans for a Beauty Pageant at a time when she feels a need for being loved and wanted, so she and Batwa conspire to get her a place in the line-up but not as a local servant girl – Joanna is going to be Princess Dinubolu, a name she chose ‘because it sounds Africanny’.
Of course, there is opposition to having a ‘negro’ girl in the contest that is actually called an International Beauty Pageant, with contestants from the USA, Japan, Germany, etc. ‘Let one in and we’ll be swarming with ‘em every time’, says a local councillor. But there are many people who want her in, namely Mr Bacon, the Kursaal owner who knows this will boost much-needed funds for his ailing business.
King Edward VII appears via a song – Dirty Bertie – that announces him as a gadabout and womaniser. He wants to see this exotic lady and try out his oleaginous charms on her.
They do not work, and when she refuses his advances he calls her a ‘pathetic novelty’. The crowd booed him off stage and out of town.
Anne Odeke has written a good play based on a true story that allows her to promote the working-class and womanhood at every opportunity, plus getting the Globe audience to catcall in all the right places whenever the male characters say something misogynistic – Great fun, actually. And as Odeke also plays the Princess she can show off her massive stagecraft skills.
Eloise Secker is quite brilliant as Violet, having the audience laughing with just a look as she displays excellent comedic traits. Matthew Ashforde as the spivvy Mr Bacon also excels.
For me, Princess Essex falls into the syrupy waters of schmaltz at the end, but going by the sighed ‘Aaaaaaahhhhs’ it was evident the crowd loved the sentimentality.
Shakespeare’s Globe, Bankside, SE1 until 26th October. Admission: £5 – £75.
Booking: https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/
