Kat Francois has just discovered she’s a distant relative of Lazarus Francois, who served with the British West Indian regiment in World War 1. However, despite a trip to Granada, she frustratingly fails to find out much more about him. Lazarus sailed from Granada to Europe, trained but never saw action, and died in mysterious circumstances – the hazy story of his death passed down through relatives.
Thank goodness then for poetic licence. The imagined relationship between Lazarus and Dusue – the abandoned mother of his child, is beautifully fleshed out, Francois playing both parties in a series of delightfully written scenelets. Her Lazarus is a fierce and witty ‘jolly West Indian soldier’, Dusue, sassy and beguiling – becoming painful to watch in her later grief. Francois’ characterisation is first-class throughout - a particular highlight the perfectly-pitched Nurse Burton, a real historical character who tended and collected the poetry of West Indian soldiers, announcing in fine estuary drawl ‘I’d never seen a black person in real-life before’. Further cameos from Lazarus’ army recruiter and a brutal barracks boxing scene give a real sense of these soldiers’ struggles.
Alongside this we get Francois’s own journey of discovery, wrapped in a woolly message about the importance of oral history. Unnecessary nods to multimedia don’t help here – a video of Francois taken in Granada adds less atmosphere than the simple morning jog scene, Francoise waving good morning to all and sundry whilst dodging cattle in the tiny village of River Salee. Similarly, a videoed poem from Seaford cemetery, Francois huddled downstage to avoid the projector beam, only serves to break her flow. Frustrating since, perhaps unsurprisingly for a World Poetry Slam champion, it’s when Francois slips into verse that his show really fizzles.
The furious ‘I wish I’d known’ (I wish I’d known about Lazarus when the National Front came marching down my street’) is fired out with passion and poise, and ‘My Mothers Motherland’ atmospherically tops and tails the show. Her lyrical language and impeccable delivery give this show its real heart, and whilst this story is obviously personally important to Francois, the joy for the audience is definitely in the telling.
