Written by Apphia Campbell

Directed by Caitlin Skinner

Review by Josie Embleton

Tickets from £15.00

How do you conceptualize one of humanity’s greatest wrongs? How do you present to an audience the emotional, political, psychological, and historical complexity of the American Civil Rights struggle that pushed through inequality and stood firm together ‘Through the Mud’. Through exquisite writing that manages to be heart-rending, inspirational, and tear-jerking all at the same time, Apphia Campbell truly shows us how theatre is done.

A reimagining of Campbell’s solo show ‘Woke’, landing itself a Scotsman Fringe First Award (unsurprising seeing the success of her previous acclaimed show ‘Black Is The Color Of My Voice’), ‘Through the Mud’ tells the story of two African American women, decades apart. Skillfully directed by Caitlin Skinner, Tinashe Warikandwa brilliantly plays the excited Ambrosia, itching to break free from her father’s comical yearning for her to pursue dentistry, instead following her passions of singing and enrolling at university. While Campbell powerfully plays Assata Shakur, a prominent Black Panther. Creating this dynamic enables striking comparisons to be drawn between those earlier figures in the 20th century fighting for civil rights and those still fighting today, bringing to the fore the current anti-racism movement Black Lives Matter.

On August 9th, 2014, a teenage African-American boy was shot and killed in cold blood by police officer Darren Wilson. This marks the same day Ambrosia begins her university experience, which we later see clouded by the events that follow. In class, she meets Tray, compellingly played by Campbell, a passionate and articulate speaker who later becomes involved in a peaceful protest against the shooting, that Ambrosia also attends. Both characters experience hateful, racist, and inhumane treatment in differing ways, physical, verbal, and mental. Facing pilling warrants against her, we follow Ambrosia in her journey through a system of injustices while simultaneously Assata faces other criminal convictions. In just focusing on these two women’s experiences, magnitudes of inspiration and strength erupt in their stories.

Campbell brings another layer of brilliance with her original music, sung live and sometimes unaccompanied by both characters, drawing them ever closer together. The use of gospel music from sound designer Joseph Degnan is mesmerizing, where the audience is entirely still, closely listening to the voices sing. Emma Jones masterfully fills the entire backstage wall with backdrops of the sky as Ambrosia waves an American flag, creating a memorable silhouette, as well as projecting collections of footage from various movements and figures, while the gospel music sings on.

Apphia Campbell, through Stellar Quines Theatre Company, an intersectional feminist company for Scotland, brings such an assertive piece of theatre that demands to be seen. The final image of two women singing and standing together in solidarity before the lights are cut is one of strength, potency, and hope, ending with the iconic symbol that yells Black Lives Matter.