Harold Pinter theatre, London
In Yasmin Joseph’s play, three girls wind their way through the streets, guided by the spirit of the activist who founded the carnival
J’Ouvert evokes the spirit of carnival from its first, thumping beat: the ground-shaking thunder of music, the sweaty crush of crowds, the feathers and the floats with friends dancing on them.
We land in the thick of the Notting Hill carnival, just a few months after the nearby Grenfell Tower fire of 2017, though the focus of the play is the heritage and politics of this specific street party. Nads (the dominant friend, played by Gabrielle Brooks) and Jade (tough, protective, played with grit by Sapphire Joy) take us through their day, from Nads’ ambition to become dancing queen to Jade’s desire to mobilise and speak out. There are stories of leering, drunken men who exoticise or grope them; encounters with the older Caribbean community; and observations of the wealthy contingent that have gentrified the area. There are sparks in the girls’ friendship, too, when Nisha (Annice Boparai) joins them, though she remains a flat character; a middle-class do-gooder, hoping to share their intimacies.
