1968. Midlands MP Enoch Powell has something to say. Something he feels needs to be said. Something that could divide Britain forever. Read more …
1992. Oxford academic and daughter of a Caribbean immigrant, Rose Cruickshank wants answers. Enoch's controversial words about immigration shattered her childhood. Will a meeting with the man himself allow her to find the inner peace she desperately craves?
What Shadows is well-intentioned theatre. It has a lot that it wants to say and has its heart in the right place. It’s well done, but it’s also too safe to fully achieve any of its political objectives.
An excellent central performance and high production values cannot ever quite overcome some problematic elements.
When McDiarmid performs Powell's actual speech at the close of the first act, it's electric enough. It's his unrepentant stance at the play's end, however, that flags up a form of England's dreaming that lingers still.
Despite a truly brilliant central performance from the great Ian McDiarmid as Powell, What Shadows often seems too diffuse in focus to do full justice to its vital subject, and more like a primer for a possible debate on English identity than an actual drama about it.
It's a fascinating play and an incredibly pertinent topic to cover, painting a picture of a multicultural vision of the UK that still struggles with its broken and unbalanced attitudes towards race, religion, identity and self, but one that leaves the audience, much like Powell and Rose, each knowingly lost in their own hypocrisies and unable to every truly find a common ground between themselves other than a tacit agreement to disagree.
What Shadows seeks to ask questions about English identity, but by involving Enoch Powell so heavily, becomes bogged down in a race war it barely addresses.
What Shadows grazes the surface of those ideologies we keep locked in the shade, yet it never comments too heavily on any issue. Instead, it draws the essence of Powell out, robust even in death, never seeking sympathy.
‘What Shadows’ is a play which very clearly speaks of contemporary England, even if one can only speculate how many in contemporary England will have the opportunity to consider what it has to say.
The sun around which the entire play revolves is, of course, the character of Powell himself. He is played with brilliant understanding and nuance by the great Ian McDiarmid.
Ian McDiarmid shines as a notorious figure from the political recent past.
Ian McDiarmid and Chris Hannan--What Shadows
Chris Hannan on his Enoch Powell play, What Shadows.
Star Wars actor McDiarmid takes on immigration row role.
Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh from Thursday September 7, 2017, until Saturday September 23, 2017. More info: www.lyceum.org.uk
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