Review: Lenny Henry stars in August Wilson's Fences at the Theatre Royal Bath

Set in Pittsburgh in the 1950s against the backdrop of the African American struggle, this is more of a tale about relationships and how the shortcomings of one man can affect so many.

Henry takes on the larger-than-life character Troy Maxson, a hardworking, chauvinist and principled refuse collector, who appears to have turned himself around after a spell in prison for theft having married a good, honest woman, Rose (Tanya Moodie) and spends much of his time and energy ensuring their son Cory (Ashley Zhangazha) does what he is told.

Although there are some laugh-out-loud moments, particularly during the anecdotal tales of the first half, the co-founder of Comic Relief ditches his stand-up act when required and assumes an all-imposing omnipresence whose command over his family is not lost on the audience. Henry is impressive, powerful, a forceful presence on stage which no-one can ignore and his much-loved Birmingham just about stands up to the deep American south.

After a very wordy first half, the second act brings with it the unravelling of a family torn apart by Troy’s impulsive and selfish affair and subsequent lovechild with another woman.

Tanya Moodie is outstanding throughout, both as the devoted wife in the beginning and as a fiercely independent and strong woman in the end as she takes in her husband’s motherless baby. Her speech to her now ‘womanless’ husband is one of the greatest rebuttals to a man’s excuse for sleeping away you are likely to ever hear and Moodie’s delivery of it is as desperate as it is determined.

Ashley Zhangazha, who has previously played a young Lenny Henry in Lenny Goes to Town, masters his role as a frustrated teenager whose father is so angry with the white world which he blames for the failure of his baseball career, he refuses his own son the chance of a college education through a football scholarship. Equally, the young actor is well equipped to show his maturity as the prodigal son who returns home a US Marine and well-balanced adult despite his difficult upbringing.

The core cast is well supported by Colin McFarlane as Troy’s jailhouse friend Jim Bono, Peter Bankole as eldest brother Lyons and Terence Maynard as Troy’s paranoid and delusional brother Gabriel. But it is Maynard’s climatic scene, at the end of this though-provoking look at one family’s near destruction, which raises a few questions marks. Not for his performance of it, more its inclusion and its compatability with the rest of the play.

Nevertheless, Fences won great applause in Bath with the loudest cheers saved for Lenny Henry himself. Taking on such a challenging role as Troy Maxson would seem to be paying dividends for the comedian, whose performance as Othello won him the outstanding newcomer in the Evening Standard Theatre Awards.

Fences is on at the Theatre Royal Bath until March 2.