The subtle interplay between the actors is quite beautiful
The legend that is Nat King Cole makes him, like his song title, truly “Unforgettable”. It was his rendition, probably more than anyone else’s, of “Autumn Leaves” that has ensured that in jazz clubs worldwide, homage is forever paid, writes Eleanor Thorn.
Playwright Tim Connery’s compelling production, under the direction of Nathan Osgood (both SE Londoners, the latter a jazz-loving American), is an invitation to discover the man and his missus, Maria Ellington, or ‘Skeez’, as he affectionately calls her. In the hands of actors Kwame Bentil and Alicia Charles, they come to life in an America that is on the cusp of change but still segregated in so many states. Meanwhile, what matters to Nat is the music.
Although this play is very much about Nat the husband, Nat the father and musician, and less about the songs that put him so firmly into the history books, we know from the start that Kwame is right for the part: “Straighten Up and Fly Right” sounds good and has the two flirting at their first encounter, mid-1940s. Nat has been encouraged to sing rather than just play piano.
Undeterred by comments referring to “undesirables”, Nat and Maria move into an exclusively white, privileged neighbourhood, with him quipping he’d be the first to complain should any undesirables move in. A bullet through a window, burning crosses on the lawn, bailiffs coming knocking… Nat King Cole leads by example more than by official statements, though Maria urges him to take more of a stand.
It’s 1949 (projected time and place markers show the passage of time) when they begin to grow their family – an adopted niece and a first daughter of their own, then becoming five. A marriage evolving, trying to cope with the strains imposed by fame, touring, poor diet, smoking, and Nat’s ignoring of serious sickness symptoms, in this segregation era – it’s not easy for a Black musician to hitch a ride to hospital when stepping off the Carnegie stage.
It’s not until gigging in the Southern town of his birth, with the English Ted Heath Band, that Nat is thrown into the glare of a hall stage where a group of lynchers attack and go in for the kill. Even then, he continues to play with a second concert for the incoming black audience. Time and again, it is the music that counts. The rest is distraction. Later, in Las Vegas, where Maria doesn’t trust those he’s surrounded by, he himself enjoys being treated ‘not like a Black man’.
This play manages to pack in events spanning two decades all the while focusing on the personal, the intimate. We can feel what makes Nat and Maria tick. The soulful lyrics of “Nature Boy” ring out: “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn, Is just to love and be loved in return”. And for us all, the jumbled fragments of our lives are like refrains in jazz.
The subtle interplay between actors Kwame and Alicia is quite beautiful, as is their joint swansong performance of “Unforgettable”, that leaves few eyes dry, especially those of the four siblings in the row behind whose local Penge childhood was set to all Nat King Cole’s songs sung to them by their Jamaican mother. If only these four came to see the play it will still have been worth all the work. But this play deserves a full house every night. Playwright Connery says this is the most heartfelt, ‘pure’ work he’s ever written and represents “a change in direction” away from the satirical. Don’t miss it.
Bridge House Theatre, 2 High St, Penge, SE20 8RZ until July 4th.
Booking and full details: https://thebridgehousetheatre.co.uk/shows/unforgettable/
