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Missing the bus
The political significance of a landmark anti-racist bus boycott in Bristol is muted by an insipid domestic drama, says SIMON PARSONS
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Princess and the Hustler
Bristol Old Vic
EIGHT years after the anti-segregation Montgomery bus boycott in the US, the West Country saw its own boycott of Bristol Omnibus Company vehicles at their refusal to employ black or Asian crews.
The action lasted four months and is credited with influencing the Race Relations Act of 1965. A momentous moment but Chinonyerem Odimba’s naturalistic play Princess and the Hustler, set in this time of growing political awareness and activity, loses its way somewhat in the domestic drama of a poor, estranged West Indian couple and their children.
In it, Mavis — played with passion and sensitivity by Donna Berlin — is struggling to bring up her two children righteously and to hold on to their dreams. Ten-year-old Princess (Kudzai Sitima) wants to win the Weston-Super-Mare beauty pageant while her older brother Junior (Fode Simbo) is holding down several part-time jobs to fund his apprenticeship as a photographer.
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