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A country house comedy about the legacy of slavery? That’s about the shape of Winsome Pinnock’s slight but punchy new play, which also toys with the tropes of the ghost story. Pinnock confronts current hot-button issues around the Transatlantic slave trade - inherited responsibility, the erasure of narratives and the concept of restitution - head on, and with humour. Her script is marred by excessive exposition, while Miranda Cromwell’s production features three broad but enjoyable performances from Cherrelle Skeete, Rakie Ayola and Sylvestra Le Touzel.
We’re in grand but crumbling Harford Hall whence historian Abi (Ayola) and her protégé Marva (Skeete) have been summoned to examine – and possibly to authenticate – six newly discovered 18th century ledgers. These relate to the farm in Jamaica which furnished the fortune that built the house, and they feature human chattels alongside livestock. There are anomalies amid the staid entries: a mystery over the death of a firstborn child; references to the brutal punishment of an enslaved woman, Black Sarah; a missing page.
