Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham – until Saturday 12th November 2022
Reviewed by Lesley Eagles
5*****
This well loved and epic film has been bravely taken and adapted for the stage. It tells the story of injustice, desperation, friendship and hope from behind the walls of a maximum-security prison.
The scene from the outset was set as cold and dank with industrial steel girders supporting a prison guard platform that housed every aspect of prison life with dull concrete flooring.
The prisoners themselves brought the prison to life with their strengths, flaws and diversities that everyday life brings. Despite all wearing the same prison uniform each one wore it in their own unique way demonstrating their obvious differences.
The actors were utilised effectively as scene shifters transitioning smoothly within and between scenes as they were working to clean and maintain the facility as prisoners.
The atmospheric changes were brought to life through creative and subtle use of clever lighting and sound to redirect focus throughout.
Andy Dufresne played by the wonderful Joe Absolom (better known for his role in Doc Martin) is a good man. He is wrongly convicted of the brutal murder of his wife and her lover. As a result he finds himself incarcerated in the Shawshank maximum-security prison facility. Andy tries to keep his head down whilst being surrounded by those who are determined to break him including the prison warden Stammas played by Mark Heenehan who bully’s Andy and exploits his talent for finance.
However he strikes up an unlikely friendship with Ellis Reddy (played by Ben Onwukwe) who is known in the facility as ‘Red’. Red is the prison fixer who can smuggle anything in. This he does, providing Andy with a rock hammer, which unbeknown to his fellow inmates becomes the means by which he manages to escape some twenty years later.
Joe Obsolom had the difficult job of bringing a well-known film character to the stage, which he did so convincingly, appealing to the audience with his quiet, thoughtful and unbreakable spirit. Ben Onwukwe also does a fantastic job in portraying Red’s endearing character as a loyal and compassionate friend to Andy. I particularly enjoyed Jules Brown performance as Rico who injected some humour in what is predominantly gritty subject matter. He would switch from quoting passages from the bible, to pages from a raunchy novel that was stuffed down his trousers! The whole cast should be proud of what was an outstanding performance.
The final scene is in sharp contrast to the entire production,
No longer is it the dark claustrophobic confinement of prison life but rather the whole stage was opened up to reveal a full breadth backdrop of a beautiful secluded beach scene. Untouched golden sand against the piercing blueness of the sea and to the forefront the two almost silhouetted figures of Andy and Red breathing in the calm following their new found freedom and release. Their sense of hope now being realised. Persistence pays off.
If you’re a fan of the film but not of the stage, then let this be the first time you venture in to the theatre, you wont regret it!