Blackbox ★★★

Based on the true story of Henry ‘Box’ Brown in the mid 1800s, Blackbox tells of life as an enslaved family in Virginia and Henry’s eventual escape by mailing himself in a box to freedom. Written and directed by Rickerby Hinds, this piece intertwines magical moments – actual, if basic, conjuring tricks – into the action, perhaps to foreshadow the final escape act.

Telling the story of Henry Brown, born into slavery, Josiah Alpher first embodies the child taught by his mother the defined rules of his role. He is innocent and trusting, plays with his siblings and hopes, indeed expects, that one day he will be free. He is owned by a man kinder than most – he is provided with proper clothes whilst he notices that others wear only rough shirts made from sackcloth. Anticipating freedom when he visits his master’s deathbed, hoping that he will finally be released from servitude, he is simply and devastatingly passed on, as a chattel, to his master’s son.

The story then continues through his adolescence: he falls in love, marries, has children, all the time as a slave, asking permission for his every act. Husband and wife are, at times, sold separately and live apart only to be brought back together until finally and shockingly, his wife, played by Jada Evelyn Ramsey, and his children are sent to work far away, never to be seen again.

Alpher and Ramsey are impassioned performers and move beautifully around the confined space at the BellyButton. At times they seem like a magician and his assistant with moves that echo that kind of relationship. The language of the play is dense and rich and quite archaic at times – and this, sadly, is the flaw in the piece – not the words but the audibility. This is a story that needs telling and needs to be heard, but quite often it is very hard to hear – moments when the two performers speak at the same time, or one underscores the other with song, exacerbate the problem.

The final act of the Blackbox, when the escape is effected, seems almost an add-on, rather than being the central event – more about the journey – which is beautifully played out and choreographed – would have been fascinating to hear, as would details of Brown’s life as a free man.