STRANGE FRUIT
Strange Fruit premiered at the Crucible Studio, Sheffield as part of the 1980 autumn season. It was directed by Jimi Rand and the original cast included Valerie Murray (Mother), Yvonne Gidden (Vernice), Sylvestra Le Touzel (Shelley), Trevor Laird (Errol) and Paul Barber (Alvin). Strange Fruit has subsequently been produced in London and Liverpool.
Caryl Phillips named his first play Strange Fruit after the harrowing song of the same name performed by Billie Holiday in 1939. The song explored racially motivated violence in America, in particular lynching. The play, similarly to the song, could be described as a protest against racial prejudice; however, Caryl Phillips goes one step further to explore the estranged relationship of a mother and her children who are worlds apart.
Single mother Vivien Marshall left the West Indies with her two sons to start a new life in England. Despite her efforts to educate her children in the best schools in Britain so that they could easily assimilate into the English culture, her sons rebel against her and join the Black Front movement. With their first protest approaching Errol desperately wants his mother to support the civil rights movement by participating in a two-day strike. However, Vivien is more concerned about his turbulent relationship with his on-and-off again white girlfriend. Errol looks forward to participating in a two-day strike with his brother. But when Alvin returns from attending his grandfather’s funeral in the West Indies, the strike is the last thing on his mind.
Award-winning writer Caryl Phillips was born in St Kitts in the Caribbean and then came to Britain in 1958 aged four months old. He was raised in Leeds, Yorkshire and studied English Literature at Oxford University. It was at university that Caryl Phillips discovered an interest in writing as none of the books he read were about people like him. He began his writing career in 1980 with his stage play Strange Fruit which opened the floodgates to a successful career in theatre, radio, television, novels and film. Phillips has won many awards and accolades, namely the BBC Giles Cooper Award for Best Radio Play of the Year for The Wasted Years (1984) and the Silver Ombu for Best Wcreenplay for his film The Mystic Masseur (2001) at the Mar Del Plata film festival in Argentina, to name but a few.
Other published plays by Caryl Phillips include Where There Is Darkness, The Shelter and Rough Crossings.
Summary (Extract)
Vivien Marshall (MOTHER), a school teacher in her late forties, left the West Indies to start a new life with her two boys, Alvin and Errol, in inner-city England over twenty years ago. Wanting to put the past behind her, she refuses to go back to the West Indies for her father’s funeral and instead encourages her eldest son Alvin to go on her behalf. But after experiencing a hostile reception from his family in the West Indies, Alvin demands the truth, forcing Vivien to relive some of the most painful memories of her past life in the West Indies and the truth about his father. Alvin starts to realise that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.
Well he tried to organise a boycott and come out on strike. He wanted the team to refuse to play.
…
Alvin, you’ve got to understand that up until then the captain of the West Indies has always been white and your father felt it ought to be a black man. He wanted to be captain himself, and everyone said he ought to be the captain. He was, Alvin, the best all-rounder the island had ever seen. Wallace Marshall. He could do it all, son.
…
Nobody signed their contracts and it looked like the tour was off unless Wallace was made captain but…but, someone from London flew out and offered everyone except Wallace twice the money, plus bonus, to sign up.
…
They signed of course. Three days later the team took off on the tour without your father.
…
Your father’s life collapsed, Alvin. He lived for cricket. He knew nothing else, so what else could he do? He started to drink. Errol was only a few months old at this time, and at first I managed to hide it from my parents. But then he came round one time in a drunken rage when Vernice and Wilfred were visiting. They felt they ought to get Wallace some help so they told my mother, who came to live with us, and my father offered to look after Wallace. He wouldn’t have it. He said he wanted us, his family, and my mother left. The day she left us and Wallace came back was the last time I saw her, but it was no good. I didn’t want to live with a drunk, I didn’t want you all to…to… (She begins to cry.)
…
No, I want to go on. You said you wanted to hear. What the hell was I supposed to do, then? Hope you all wouldn’t notice, that it would all go away like magic? Well, it wasn’t going away, Alvin. It was getting worse. I had to get out. We had to get out. So we came to England.