Roots ****

Donmar Warehouse, London
EXCERPT: “The cast and creative team are quite simply outstanding in this production. MacDonald’s directorial approach is - like his actors' touch - fittingly light.”

Roots, by Arnold Wesker, centres around Beatie Bryant, a feisty young woman who returns to her rural hometown and family with the intention of introducing them to her new beau Ronnie, an educated and worldly young socialist. In anticipation of his arrival, she critiques all those elements of her family life that she fears he will find old fashioned and indicative of ignorance. She is the mouthpiece for his speeches, and it is only at the end of the play that we learn she has hitherto been the recipient of all the criticisms she has passed onto her family. It is only when she finds her own voice at the play’s conclusion that we see education to be the empowering force that it the speeches have so vociferously proclaimed it to be. Rather than being about knowledge per se, education is shown to be a way of thinking. For all Ronnie’s high ideals, he too is responsible for perpetrating ignorance: spouting speeches at someone does not educate and empower them. The parallels between him and the insincere lover in Beatie’s tale are clear enough when he finally jilts Beatie, but the same could be said of his idealistic attitude to education.

James MacDonald’s production does justice to the depth, sophistication and subtlety of Wesker’s superb play. In Hildegard Bechtler’s stunningly rendered set, we see family life being drawn out so slowly that after the first act I must admit I struggled to see what it was trying to say and where it was going. As the production progresses, however, the reflective nature of the drama onstage seeps out into the audience, as meaty topics are delved into in the same ponderous way that characterises the action onstage. Roots refuses to simplify issues or provide answers, and instead looks at what educative empowerment actually means, exposing the gaps that it forms between people, what is lost in the process, and the divisive negativity that must inevitably be created by such a rejection of your roots.

The cast and creative team are quite simply outstanding in this production. MacDonald’s directorial approach is - like his actors' touch - fittingly light. It is Linda Bassett and Jessica Raine’s portrayal of the mother-daughter relationship that really wows though: it is recognisable and the nuances and shifts are precisely managed. Raine’s commanding tone and the authoritative way in which she dismisses her mother’s way of life is balanced by a convincing ability to slip back into the childish young dependent. And whilst there are many features that don’t appeal about her character, we always connect with and care about her. Linda Bassett plays her mother with the quiet stoicism that we imagine has characterised much of her gruelling life, but with enough character that we can see family similarities between the pair and that her outraged outburst at Beatie’s final revelation doesn’t feel out of character.

Whilst these two and their relationship is necessarily the centrepiece of Roots, it is hard to find fault with the supporting cast members. A superb play and production.