How a one woman performance inspired by Nina Simone puts a spell on you at Chichester

I Put A Spell On You might be one of Nina Simone’s most famous songs. But it was Apphia Campbell who was putting a spell on the Chichester audience.

Her performance is intense, uncompromising and utterly mesmerising.

In a production which she wrote as well as performed she gives us glimpses not just into the life of the magnificent Nina Simone but the doubts, terrors and hopes that inspired and drove her.

Set in a basic bedroom with a suitcase of memories, Nina is coming to terms with the untimely death of her father and the guilt of her separation from him in the months before. Her final words to him still haunt.

Rarely is personal anguish laid so bare but in it we see what made her one of the greatest jazz singers and civil rights activists of her or any generation.

Apphia’s own exceptional voice intertwines some of Nina Simone’s most famous songs giving the story a dimension and courage that pushed so many of the audience to their feet in a standing ovation.

But it takes a rare, irresistible talent to bring this performance to its conclusion with Nina’s arguably best-loved song Feeling Good when quite possibly she was feeling anything but.

This is the type of performance The Minerva was built for. As spells go, this show is pure magic.