The Legends of Them review

“Mammoth chronicle of trauma, as well as light”

ReviewsSep 20, 2023by Anya RyanBrixton House, London

Sutara Gayle in Legends of Them at Brixton House, London. Photo: Harry Elletson

Breathtaking solo musical chronicle of Sutara Gayle’s extraordinary life

The extraordinary life of Sutara Gayle is explored in this miraculous one-woman collage of memories, written by Gayle and co-created by Nina Lyndon and director Jo McInnes. An amalgam of characters, video footage and music, born from the soul, it’s a carefully constructed mystical journey and a wild voyage of self-discovery.

While in India with her brother, the renowned guru Mooji, Gayle has a flash of spiritual awakening. Guided by her personal legends – her mother, her sister Cherry Groce, and the 18th-century Jamaican leader Queen Nanny of the Maroons – she recalls the significant times in her history that have shaped her. It is an experience of pain and trauma, as well as light. She goes back to her school days, during which she was shipped from one institution to another. Footage from the moment her sister Groce was shot by the police in her own home in 1985, prompting the second Brixton Uprising, sends rage around the audience. As she re-enacts Cherry’s later life of intrusive operations in hospital, tears roll down Gayle’s face.

As well as a successful actor, Gayle is also an acclaimed reggae artist known as Lorna Gee. Her track record as a pioneering DJ is evident here: music is part of the anatomy of her story. In front of sky-high speakers, she breaks into flawless songs that join the dots between her world’s different sections. As she sings, you can’t help but be shaken.

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With just one performer, sometimes the characters’ routes through Gayle’s account become a maze. She jumps from one section to the next, switching between personalities with ease. It is a creative choice that proves her strengths as an actor but, occasionally, it takes a second for the audience to catch up. Still, it’s futile to criticise Gayle’s mammoth chronicle, which is squeezed neatly into just over an hour. Even if its form can be slightly disorientating, the personal turmoil Gayle divulges does more than its share of the heavy lifting. It is remarkable that one woman has been through so much.

It’s fitting that Gayle’s autobiographical premiere should find its home at Brixton House – a theatre in the postcode where she was born and bred, that is fast becoming a space for exciting and authentic forms of creative expression. On press night, after the play ended, many in the audience stayed seated in the darkness, to catch their breath. This is theatre so agonisingly true that it takes your heart and twists it.

Production Details

Production nameThe Legends of Them

VenueBrixton House

LocationLondon

Starts14/09/2023

Ends30/09/2023

Press night19/09/2023

Running time1hr 15mins

AuthorSutara Gayle

CreatorJo Mcinnes, Nina Lyndon

ComposerChristella Litras

DirectorJo Mcinnes