> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # REVIEW: The Curve- The Color Purple @ Home - URL: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/review-the-curve-the-color-purple-home/ - Published: 2021-02-20T17:30:26.000Z - Updated: 2021-02-20T18:12:07.000Z - Description: Brian Butler revels in a wonderful story of community, connection and love - Author: Brian Butler - Tags: Arts, Musical Theatre, Out & About, Reviews, Television, Theatre, Birmingham Hippodrome, Leicester, Mark Smith [![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/danielle-fiamanya-as-nettie_the-color-purple-at-h_e2_80_a6pamela-raith600.png)](https://www.gscene.com/arts/theatre/review-the-curve-the-color-purple-home/attachment/danielle-fiamanya-as-nettie%5Fthe-color-purple-at-hpamela-raith600/?ref=scenemag.co.uk) Production photography, taken by Pamela Raith. **Alice Walker’s** deeply moving novel , The Color Purple is a story of community, connection, and the need for time with loved ones – so it touches many nerve centres in this 3rd of lockdowns. This Tony-award winning musical theatre interpretation by **Marsha Norman, Brenda Russell, Allee Willis** and **Stephen Bray** will just blow you away with its power, dignity and beauty . **T’ Shan Williams** is absolutely astonishing as the virtually enslaved Celie , who by the age of 14 has given birth twice and whose father seems to be the childrens’ father too. It’s a strong start and the storyline weaves in and out of the lives of strong women of colour – Celie ; her sister Nettie ( **Danielle Fiamanya** ) who becomes first an exile and then a refugee, and two feisty women who provide humour, pathos and warm sentiment . **Karen Mavundukure** is Sofia, a big-hearted mother of many, who proves she can hold her own in a world of male dominance . And there’s Shug Avery ( **Carly Mercedes Dyer** ) , a blues singer who falls onto the stage in her first scene of drunkenness , but who proves more than a match for any man she encounters and who struggles to requite the lesbian love and affection that Celie shows her. [![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/perola-congo-as-squeak-and-simon-anthony-rhod_e2_80_a6pamela-raith600.png)](https://www.gscene.com/arts/theatre/review-the-curve-the-color-purple-home/attachment/perola-congo-as-squeak-and-simon-anthony-rhodpamela-raith600/?ref=scenemag.co.uk) Production photography, taken by Pamela Raith. By and large the men portrayed here are feckless, cruel, violent and uncaring – embodied in **Ako Mitchell’s** Mister. But this is above all a story of redemption , and there’s even a place for Mister at Celie’s final scene picnic some 30 years after the show’s opening sequence. [![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/carly-mercedes-dyer-as-shug-avery_the-color-purp_e2_80_a6pamela-raith600.png)](https://www.gscene.com/arts/theatre/review-the-curve-the-color-purple-home/attachment/carly-mercedes-dyer-as-shug-avery%5Fthe-color-purppamela-raith600/?ref=scenemag.co.uk) Production photography, taken by Pamela Raith. The songs are a fusion of jazz, Ragtime, blues, gospel and African originals and **Mark Smith’s** highly engaging choreography gets into the inner soul of the rhythms and the emotional life of the characters and **Tinuke Craig**’s in-the-round direction is quick-paced, moody and takes us to the very heart of the story. **Alex Parker’s** musical direction is pitch perfect at every moment. The reuniting of the Curve, Leicester’s original 2019 cast brings a rare kind of chemistry and electricity to the show, and though it’s billed as a concert, for me it seems fully staged except… well except of course the performers have to keep a statutory distance . By the finale you die for a hug, a kiss or even just a touch of the hand. But it’s a small price to pay to have this show in front of us. [![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/the-cast-of-the-color-purple-at-home_photograp_e2_80_a6mela-raith-600.png)](https://www.gscene.com/arts/theatre/review-the-curve-the-color-purple-home/attachment/the-cast-of-the-color-purple-at-home%5Fphotograpmela-raith-600/?ref=scenemag.co.uk) Production photography, taken by Pamela Raith. This collaboration with the Birmingham Hippodrome would doubtless have had a good run and even maybe a transfer, but we get to see it online till March 7\. Don’t miss the opportunity . It’s a 5-star triumph. Tickets at [curveonline.co.uk](https://www.curveonline.co.uk/?ref=scenemag.co.uk)