Mumble and gloria1/8/2023 ![]() Only midway through does the audience begin to connect the script’s irresolute feelings and actions to the greater sense of uncertainty and grief, which mainly affects Lorraine, the protagonist and the likely inheritor of Gloria’s legacy. This plotline adds conflict, but it is never fully resolved. The play introduces a plot on whether to sell the family home to developers, summoning a narrative arc akin to Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. Dramatic conflict certainly arises, but, for the majority of the script, this feels contrived. Characters move in and out, struggle and fight, mend and grieve in the course of the play’s 105 minutes. Nine Night is told in a series of vignettes set in Gloria’s living room during her wake. The play’s title refers to a Caribbean funeral tradition in which the friends, family, and community of the deceased celebrate, mourn, and pave the way for the spirit to move on to the next life with encouragement from their loved ones. As members of this Jamaican British family living in London pass on, move away, and grow up-and new family members arrive-Gordon’s script reminds us that life is a revolving door, and Round House Theatre’s production shows us it’s okay to linger in the doorway if “goodbye” came too early. Lorraine’s daughter Anita ( Kaitlyn Boyer) breathes youthful energy and hope into the story as a new mother. ![]() ![]() Lorraine’s brother, Robert ( Avery Glymph), is a necessary dramatic foil as he considers the family’s economic future while forgetting the immediate longings for partnership and family felt by his wife, Sophie ( Katie deBuys). Oben stands out with intense heart and desperation in every choice her character makes. Gloria’s daughter Lorraine ( Lilian Oben) leads the cast with dynamic and emotive melancholy. Nine Night opens with Gloria’s forthcoming death. Under Timothy Douglas’ direction, the play is both indifferently clever and enduringly heartfelt. And Tim Mackabee’s set design includes a portrait of the play’s deceased matriarch, Gloria, looming authoritatively over the action, as though she herself were a monarch. The legacy of British imperialism is clearly reflected in Nine Night’s poignant discussions of race and immigration. Coincidentally, today, the play might also serve as a response to the death of England’s Queen Elizabeth II. But Natasha Gordon’s script finds new resonance in a period of unprecedented mourning in the wake of COVID-19 and a global reckoning with a racialized present. The play received West End acclaim for its timely meditations on race and immigration in the 21st century. debut after its 2018 premiere at the U.K.’s National Theatre. Round House Theatre’s production of Nine Night has long awaited its U.S.
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