The Women of Llanrumney Review

Reviewed by Giada

Ticket was gifted in return for an honest review.

The Women of Llanrumney is not your typical period drama. It is a searing reckoning with imperialism and slavery. Every word, every silence carries weight - the seed of revolution buried within. The play demands patience, but when the moment to fight arrives, will you recognise it? And more importantly, will you be brave enough to join?

Photo by Chuko Cribb

That question underpins the relationship between Annie (Suzanne Packer) and her daughter Cerys (Shvorne Marks). It’s not just a generational conflict; it’s a clash of ideals and lived experiences.

1765. The Great House, Llanrumney. Annie, who witnessed her mother - born free - tortured to death in boiling sugar (the very same sugar cultivated on the plantation), convinces herself that her own path to freedom lies in the proximity to power, and ingrates herself with the white planter class. “Working” for Miss Elisabeth (Nia Roberts), she has numbed herself to the horrors beyond the glass walls of the estate. But Cerys, who has endured that brutality first-hand, refuses to accept her mother’s version of survival. With a child on the way, she envisions a better world - one not built on submission, but resistance.

Historically, the Caribbean’s sugar plantations were among the most brutal in the world. The tropical climate, rampant disease, and the dangerous process of refining sugar and rum made survival nearly impossible. The island’s history is intertwined with the figure of the Welsh privateer Henry Morgan, who, with the unofficial backing of the English government, plundered Spain’s Caribbean colonies in the late 17th century. Though arrested for attacking Panama after a peace treaty was signed, he was later knighted by King Charles II and sent back as Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica, where he lived out his days as a “wealthy and respected” (Britannica.com) planter. By the time of his death, Morgan’s assets were worth the equivalent of £1.4 million today -wealth built on the labour of 131 enslaved people  (64 men, 67 women and 33 children). Yet, when playwright Oforka visited Llarumney Hall, their names or story were nowhere to be found. That erasure is what prompted this play.

Photo by Chuko Cribb

Oforka masterfully exposes the hypocrisy of British plantocracy and the brutal dynamics of supremacy and exploitation. Elisabeth, the heir to Morgan’s plantation, is portrayed as a lavish and whimsical woman - indulgent in gluttony, alcoholism, and reckless squandering. Her fall from grace is anything but sympathetic, a choice director Patricia Logue amplifies by covering her downfall with farcical tones, emphasising the obliviousness of the ruling class. In stark contrast, Cerys and the enslaved community have no illusions about the horrors of their world.Standing in the corner, gripping a teapot, Cerys’ rage builds silently on her face. When she finally speaks, in front of Elisabeth and the plantation’s new owner, she does so in her mother tongue, urging her mother to see the truth: revolution is coming. But it is only when Cerys is shackled and silenced with a muzzle that Annie finally opens her eyes to reality.

Costume designer Stella-Jane Odoemelam brings incredible thoughtfulness to the production, drawing from historical paintings and artefacts to create clothing that is not just period-accurate but deeply expressive of status and personality.

With a gut-wrenching performance from Suzanne Packer, The Women of Llanrumney delivers a visceral punch. I believe this is what theatre and art are for. It forces us to confront Britain’s colonial history, not just the inhumanity of the oppressors but the bravery of the oppressed. At a time when history is being rewritten and erased, the play insists on remembrance. It reminds us that Jamaica’s fight for independence in the late 18th and early 19th centuries was not led by white abolitionists, as history often claims, but by the very people who were enslaved, many of them women, who dared to rise.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Women of Llanrumney runs at Stratford East until Saturday 12th April 2025. Tickets are available from https://www.stratfordeast.com/whats-on/all-shows/the-women-of-llanrumney

Photo by Chuko Cribb