While Stratford Festival is renowned for its Shakespearean productions, the company complements these with carefully curated programmes of modern plays.
During the 2023 season, one of the highlights was Alice Childress’s Wedding Band, a deep exploration into racism, seen through the eyes of Charleston residents as The Great War was ending in 2018, with a flu pandemic hard on its heels.
The playwright peoples her small corner of the southern state with a rich and variegated group of characters, primarily female. Landlady Fanny is a self-important, delusional gossip, Lula is dedicated to her soldier stepson, Nelson and Mattie, devoted equally to her sailor husband and sweet young daughter.
Their world is turned upside down by the arrival of Antonette Rudder in the role of wealthier Julia Augustin, a proud woman who has scandalously been “married” for 10 years to Cyrus Lane’s White Herman, a kind baker of German descent in thrall to an overbearing mother and resented by his patronising sister Annabelle, respectively played by Lucy Peacock and Maev Beaty.
While following the activities of this group, together with occasional visitors, the two-hour play centres on the tricky relationship between Julia and Herman. They undoubtedly love each other but are separated by their racial heritage, for which each becomes representative. Like Chekhov’s Three Sisters, the couple hope to escape the South, not to Moscow, but for more racially integrated New York.
The scenes prior to the intermission are generally light-hearted, as the characters make the most of what life offers, which can be paltry but at least no longer involves slavery, although tragedy never seems too far away. The drama hots up thereafter, as Herman falls ill, drawing his mother and sister into the story.
Annabelle is largely self-pitying, although she does offer sympathy to her sick brother. The same cannot be said for their mother, a witchy Klan fan who would “rather be dead than disgraced”.
The highlight of the play for many is likely to be the scene in which Julia and her not-quite mother-in-law verbally duel, not only for the affections of the man whom they share but also for their respective people, in every sense.
Given these ingredients, Wedding Band is a thought-provoking play about racial prejudice, miscegenation and love that effectively mixes the comic with the tragic, cleverly using individuals to explore very serious issues that have diminished but not disappeared completely even today.
Sam White directs an excellent ensemble cast, strongly led by Antonette Rudder, Lucy Peacock and Cyrus Lane.
This video is available on the Stratfest@home web site in assorted formats up to the crystal clear 4K. The library changes regularly and the pricing is still just £6.44 per month or £64.47 for an annual subscription. It is a great treasure trove that will give fans of high-quality theatre hours of pleasure.