Royal Court Theatre
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The first part is a series of vignettes which take place both in the UK and the US, showing young people's defiant hunger for change which contrasts their elders' more cautious campaign for progress. Before the play starts, we see cast members drift into and out of sight as they walk behind a translucent glass screen. As "Part 1" is projected onto the screen, it lifts and we are able to see the whole cast clearly - we are given an insight into the lives of African-American and Black-British people, bubbling with anger and looking for change. debbie tucker green is a wonder with words - each snapshot is powerful and hits hard. The first is a young boy asking his mother what he should do with his hands when out and about. For every position he offers, his mother notices a perceived aggression or disrespect towards "them", towards white people. It is a striking depiction of the frustrating battle to 'just be' without being subjected to racism. The meaning is made even more powerful when the scene is repeated later on but in British Sign Language, showing the universal racial injustices and how these situations are not specific to any one situation. These are clearly conversations and fears that huge numbers of black people across the world have.
tucker green's writing is just superb, in some places like a pulsing poetry, and it is acted unbelievably well by the cast. It is impossible to write about everything that was good in the play, because that would involve describing the entire thing in detail! Particularly powerful performances came from Kayla Meikle as an intelligent, high-achieving young woman who gives a vivid description of being targeted with tear gas, and Shaniqua Okwok as a girl who is buzzing with adrenaline after having just "made a difference" at a recent march. Eric Kofi Abrefa delivers a poignant performance as he relates the harrowing and humiliating situation of being strip-searched on the grounds of 'assumed guilt' for a crime by 6, (I am assuming white), police officers. debbie tucker green cleverly has him echo the beginning of the story that a woman tells earlier in the play, showing the repetitious, consistent maltreatment of black people. Throughout Part 1 we also continuously revisit a restless young man, played incredibly well by Tosin Cole, who is asking his older mentor for a "reason to not" fight for change. Each vignette is punctuated by a brief movement sequence, and cast members cluster in different groups around the stage as each little scene takes place.
Part 2 consists of six short scenes which move forward a conversation between a white, male academic and an African-American woman. They 'discuss' a recent school shooting and the woman tries to show that the shooter is not just another young, "damaged" boy, but in fact a white supremacist. tucker green has masterfully created the scenes to make the audience feel uncomfortable and angry - the man is so awfully patronising and demeaning towards the woman, not letting her get a word in edgeways. Some of her lines are so cutting that the audience visibly shift in their seats, and when the woman, played excellently by Lashana Lynch, refuses to submit to the man's way of thought and stays true to her beliefs, standing up for herself and not letting him walk all over her, the audience clap and cheer in support. tucker green draws out racial injustices here, not only through the woman stating that the treatment of this case would be completely different if the culprit had been black instead of white, but also through the tense interaction between the man and the woman and the awful way that he treats her. It is a brilliantly crafted collection of scenes.
The final part is a series of videos in which white American people read American segregation laws which are horrifically recent, and then British people read laws about treatment and punishment of slaves from the time of the British Empire. The things that they are reading are shocking in themselves, and it is even more distressing how much material there is for this part. The quantity of laws devoted to the discrimination and maltreatment of black people is just appalling. Personally I did find that this section lasted a bit too long, especially given as those reading the laws didn't always get them right. I found the quantity of videos mildly frustrating when debbie tucker green's original words are so powerful and the actors were so talented, I think there were probably other ways for the statement to be made. However, the fact that the videos did keep coming did effectively show years of racism from both sides of the Atlantic. This meant that when, immediately after this in the epilogue, the young man asks again "for a reason to not" it is impossible for the adults on stage to give him one.
I would recommend this show to everyone. It is hard hitting and powerful, as well as being an amazing piece of art. debbie tucker green's writing is astounding, the design of the production is so clever, and the performances are faultless, all making the play unmissable. An excellent piece of theatre.