REVIEW | Through The Mud
Written by Sarah
Disclaimer: gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review.
I’ve written here before about Apphia Campbell, having seen her perform in Fringe 2023’s ‘Black Is The Color Of My Voice’; it was a show inspired by the life of Nina Simone, engaging the audience with vital insight into Black history and the fight for racial equality. An instant and well-deserved standing ovation ensued.
‘Through The Mud’, Campbell’s reimagining of her solo work in Fringe 2017’s ‘Woke’, is just as impressive, and again, we are disarmed and dazzled by the great heart and soul of Apphia Campbell, along with second cast member and strong counterpart, Tinashe Warikandwa.
Interspersed with purposeful stage lighting and imagery, mesmerizing singing sequences of original music and traditional gospel tunes, and engaging narration, ‘Through The Mud’ tells an intergenerational tale of two Black women involved in the struggle for Civil Rights, but living several decades apart.
Campbell takes on the role of famous Black Panther Assata Shakur with power and passion, while Warikandwa, playing a present-day university student enrolled at the start of the Ferguson riots, gives her character an effective sense of delicacy.
This interweaving narrative may seem like a big feat to execute successfully on-stage, but through Caitlin Skinner's skilful direction and Campbell's carefully crafted script, it works quite well, aiding to reveal an awful but undeniable truth — very little change has been made over the past half-century.
There is no solution offered to us at the end of 'Through The Mud', but instead an inspired call-to-action; Campbell and Warikandwa sing side-by-side in solidarity, before staring out at the audience for one final, chill-inducing moment. Yes, tears were shed!
