Review: An Octoroon

Hey readers!
It's time for my review of An Octoroon.
Having not been to the Orange Tree Theatre in a long time and having a free Saturday afternoon, An Octoroon seemed like the perfect show to go and see at the weekend. It was also a lot better than having to venture into London (which takes around 45 minutes). Sadly though, An Octoroon was not the show for me. Honestly, it seemed that the show lacked consistency. There were certain parts of the show that were a little all over the place. An Octoroon left me somewhat baffled and even four days after seeing it, I am struggling to understand certain parts of it. It took me over half an hour to realise what was going on onstage. It's described as being a 'play, within a play, within a play', which is an interesting concept but not one that I felt worked particularly well. The playwright of the adaption has merged himself and his life, the original playwright of Octoroon's life and the play itself.  From what I could gather, the original play itself didn't really did much editing, and therefore I am not really sure as to why so many different elements were added in. As the old saying goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Luckily, that's all I have to say about the negatives of the show, let's move onto positives! The best thing about An Octoroon was its phenomenal cast. They all delivered extremely good performances in what were very demanding roles. They all showed a vast variety of talents; including some amazing American accents (I seriously believed they were all actually American). The majority of the technical aspects were good, with lighting, costume and sound design all being impressive. The storyline (the original storyline, that is, not the added parts) was actually really interesting and was able to educate me further on the issues of slavery in America. The use of white face and black face makeup was extremely unique; it's something I've never seen done before. If the parts that were added in (the two playwright's) were taken out, I would definitely see this production again. This production ticks a lot of the right boxes, but sadly it still manages to miss the mark.

The featured star of An Octoroon is, drum roll please... VIVIAN OPARAH!

It took me ages to make this decision, so in the end I decided to go through each cast member and give them a rating out of ten. The actors with the highest ratings (9/10) were Ken Nwosu, Vivian Oparah and Celeste Dodwell. From there, I just had to go with gut instinct. Vivan Oparah gave a phenomenal performance. She was immensely funny, and yet was also very good at the more serious parts of her role. It's amazing to think this is her theatre debut!

Now for my final verdict on An Octoroon. I give An Octoroon...

An Octoroon was far from the best show I have ever seen, but I cannot deny that it does have a fair amount of redeeming qualities, which is why I award An Octoroon three stars.

Think it should have got a higher rating? Agree with my rating? Think it should have got a lower rating? If so comment below.

Thanks for reading!

-The Reviewer