Not tailor-made for the National but still a good fit
Alterations is a 1978 play by Michael Abbensetts(with additional material by Trish Cooke) that was a seminal work for the writer, having much influence on writers who came after him, writes Michael Holland.
As we took our seats the preliminary action took place on stage: a man with an Afro grooved to his boom box as the world passed him by; a young kid rode around on a bike; a couple drifted through – She wasn’t happy. All this non-verbal communication set the scene for a tale of a narcissist, a street boy and a relationship on the rocks, and all this happened in Alterations, a sweat-shop tailors where Walker(Arinzé Kene) struggled to keep his business alive while he saved up to buy a shop of his own where he could do proper tailoring – making suits for the ‘trendy’. A struggle he persevered with while his life at home was falling apart.
His friend Buster(Gershwyn Eustache Jnr) stuck by him but had no real ambitions other than keep a wage coming in so he could keep the family he was building. The counter to these two was Courtney(Raphael Famotibe), the young van driver who was escaping the gangs on the estate, while knowing there were no real opportunites for him in 70s Britain.
Walker gets a big order from Mr Nat, a white man who understood his hardship because he, too, had worked his way up from the bottom; Mr Nat was an immigrant like the staff at Alterations. Doing this job well could pay enough to get Walker his shop so they worked through the night.
Walker’s wife Darlene (Cherrelle Skeete)arrives to berate her man, who in turn sweet talks her back into line. Horace(Karl Collins), who has been brought in to help with the big order, sees how their relationship is and immediately hits on Darlene.
And there it is. Almost sitcom-ish but with a dark undercurrent creeping about below the laughs. Horace sabotages the big order, Courtney lays some home truths on the elders; Darlene reaches the end of her tether… And all to a reggae and Blues soundscape. The stage was often filled with the dreaded ‘Ghana Must Go’ bags, which, because they say so much, I’m sure was intentional.
I realised the Guyanese patois was not so easy to follow each time the auditorium erupted into laughter without me, but not so much that I didn’t know what was happening.
Abbensetts does not fill the stage with stereotypes, nor follow the expected narrative arc, but he does get over the message that these black people are just people who may have the same desires and hopes that white people have, or they may not. He does not hit the audience over the head with a ‘life in the ghetto’ tale, or ‘the white man making life intolerable for black people’ yarn. It’s there and it is real, but this is basically love gone wrong, wrapped up in a failing business.
Excellent performances from the cast; their wigs almost putting in BAFTA turns as well. Alterations is not tailor-made for the National but it is still a good fit.
Lyttleton Theatre, National Theatre, South Bank, SE1 until April 5th.
Booking: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/alterations/
