Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White at the Lyric Hammersmith

A tragic love story for the ages, Wedding Band is an impactful show of how love for an individual cannot transcend the vilest of racial bias. Set in 1918, when interracial marriage in the US was illegal, Black seamstress Julia finds herself having fallen for white baker Herman. As the Spanish Flu claims Herman, friends and family who oppose their relationship all weigh in on their thoughts and opinions on handling the situation. When the pressure rises from both sides – a Black community protective of one of their own; a family whose shame trumps their love and care for their son and brother – ignorance, culture clashing and racial bias will test the bonds between these two lovers.

While set in 1918, Wedding Band is adapted from a play written by Alice Childress in 1962. With the contrast and parallels between these two time periods and the current state of today, this performance evokes questions of whether or not society has actually made progress or has just gotten better at masking its revolting perception of race and white supremacy. The script echoes familiar thoughts of never trusting the police when it comes to matters of race, discrimination as something people are not inherently born with but are taught, and fitting into a specific mould to be accepted by society – as if one’s roots are something be judged, picked apart and change for the acceptance of other people. It’s in exploring these topics that Monique Touko’s direction excels in.

The highlight of the play is the characters, with the two actors garnering the most reaction from the audience being Diveen Henry’s expressive and absolutely hilarious performance as Ms Lula, and Geraldine Alexander’s visceral and horrifying portrayal of Thelma. Henry delivers a very poignant performance: the humour she presents, while amusing, never loses the weight of their circumstances. Meanwhile, Alexander’s scathing delivery of Thelma’s lines rallies the whole room to root against her, and the definitive moment of Julia finally standing up to her is one of the most satisfying moments of the entire night. These two add so much flavour and engagement to the performance, letting theatregoers breathe and entertain themselves despite the tragic series of events without undermining the severity of the situation presented to them.

The two leads David Walmsley as Herman and Deborah Ayorinde as Julia, individually, are captivating. Ayorinde has a charm that draws viewers in, and they can see in the certainty and delicacy of her mannerisms how Herman fell in love with her. Meanwhile, Walmsley in the first act is charismatic and endearing, but there’s a push and pull within his character that highlights that despite his love for Julia, he is still a white man with prejudices and racist tendencies. Unfortunately, something about their dynamic as a couple doesn’t quite land, making it hard to root for them in their fight against the tide. The script does the heavy lifting of developing their romance, with the two of them only really clicking together as couple in the closing moments of the show. Given that this dynamic is the centrepiece of the Wedding Band, their lack of chemistry can come across as distracting.

Wedding Band is an enjoyable production with a message that transcends the time it’s set in and when it was written, with resonance for today’s society. It’s thought-provoking without sacrificing entertainment for the weighty topics it covers, enhancing such themes with quirky and funny moments. Most importantly, it has a cast of both endearing and divisive characters that keeps audiences thoroughly captivated through its runtime.

Mae Trumata
Image: Mark Senior

Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White is at the Lyric Hammersmith from 31^st May until 29^th June 2024. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.

Meet the cast of Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White here: