Writer/Director: Rickerby Hinds
The true story of Henry ‘Box’ Brown, who escaped enslavement by mailing himself from Virginia to Philadelphia in a wooden crate, provides the focus for this hard-hitting play, having its UK premiere at the Fringe. Brown’s escape is inherently dramatic, and the fact that he later became an entertainer and magician himself has inspired a show where tricks and illusions provide flickers of light relief amid the horror.
This play tells one man’s story, but we know that there were millions of others. What happened to Brown was repeated in so many other lives: the cruelty, physical abuse, separation of families, and above all the treatment of human beings as property, used at the whim of others. What also hit home for me in this play was the role of religion. The enslaved people held tightly to their Christian faith, believing in a God who would give them strength to endure, and hope for a reward in heaven, if not on earth. The production uses gospel music, powerfully sung by the cast, as a cry of defiance, looking forward to ‘an unclouded day’. But the ‘masters’ also profess to be religious – many are ordained ministers, whose hypocrisy is simply staggering.
The hip-hop inflected script (written and directed by Rickerby Hinds) is performed with passion and intensity by Josiah Alpher as Brown, who struggles to make any sense of the world he finds himself in, but knows he has a duty to resist. Jada Evelyn Ramsey, as ‘Spirit’, plays multiple roles in the story (including magician’s assistant) with grace and athleticism. Blackbox is a devastating indictment of cruelty on an industrial scale, and a tribute to the resilience of the individual and collective human spirit.
Runs until 30 August 2026 | Image: Contributed
