What a combative week of theatre it was. Three broadly political plays that proceeded more by talk than physical action, punching, reproaching and arguing. With various effects.
Polishing and poking (there are plenty of these), Slave Game It arrives in London on Broadway, setting Broadway alight. In the weeks before its opening night, its writer Jeremy O Harris was censured by the then prime minister, Rishi Sunak, for designating two performances specifically for black audiences. I disagree. At least one side-effect of the primary purpose of “blackout” performances – to encourage audiences to stay away from the stands as they habitually do – is that it has made me realise how implicitly unwelcome I am, as a white woman (who, by the way, is not banned from these nights, just specifically invited). In 2020/21, 93% of audiences in Arts Council-funded theatres were white.
Harris, by Slave Game When he was at Yale in 2018, he said he wanted viewers to leave with “strange feelings.” In fact, I’ve rarely seen a show that left me so cold—its provocations so specific, its delivery often heavy—yet so alive with questions afterward. Any shock implied in the title is spoiled by knowing the play’s premise, which is below. Three couples, all with one black or mixed-race partner and one white partner, engage in “prewar sex therapy”: plantation scenes—pants and “isn’t the owner coming home soon?”—are reenacted, followed by therapeutic discussions designed to explore why the black characters are no longer aroused by their partners. They are overseen by two therapists, one black, one white, who use the sessions to examine their own relationships, in glib jargon and harsh language.
Relating to: ‘White supremacy was never hidden from me’: Jeremy O Harris on bringing Broadway hit Slave Play to UK
The arguments are so loaded, so explicit, that they drag down the drama. Yet they leave subtler aftereffects, raising questions about how to distinguish pretense from “reality,” and whether a power imbalance is necessary for sexual excitement. The latter point is racially charged here, but its traditional application to male-female encounters is handled elegantly. Kit Harington (delightfully irritated as an ostensibly well-intentioned man) declares in a moment of laudatory misogyny that he is horrified at the idea of calling his wife a nigger when she is actually his “queen.” I was more impressed, though, by Harris’s trance-like power-play work. Daddy two years ago, all this Slave Game worth hearing.
Like the delicate outbursts of Fisayo Akinade, a magically witty actor whose extended, questioning sharpness and openness turn into a melancholy attentiveness. She makes you believe that she was once bewitched; she makes you believe that bewitchment is a captivity. She is ably matched by the US-made James Cusati-Moyer, who surprisingly refuses to say he is white, who creates a sense of complexity with every intricate, evasive move. What is important is that this pair suddenly gives a human pulse to a diagrammatic game.
Last year, players were cut from the squad, leading to some last-minute dramatic changes
The Donmar has a tradition of producing plays about poor American citizens on the edge of the abyss. Tim Sheader’s first season as artistic director looks set to follow suit: Lynn Nottage’s Sweat And Clyde’sNottage’s magnificent Underwear. Meanwhile, Skeleton crewA piece by Dominique Morisseau Detroit Project The trilogy contributes to the theme.
In a factory heading toward closure, a man keeps a gun in his closet; a woman sleeps in her car after gambling away her home; a pregnant woman dreams of a better future; a young manager takes pride in “wearing the shirt” to work.
This is an important portrait of hard lives. Yet the dialogue is often wordy, if sometimes slyly turned: Why do characters who have worked together for years elaborately explain their past lives? Ultz’s design – metal cabinets, iron beams, dazzling lights – is strong, but Matthew Xia’s production reveals rather than directs; there are a few unexpected outcomes. It’s a case of pain and hope. Yet a more striking play stirs beneath, heard in the soundscape, dictated by Morisseau and realised by Nicola T Chang. Industrial explosions, crashes, humming wires dominate the environment, seeping into the bloodstream. In one beautiful moment, the pregnant woman rests her hand on her belly, listening to the distant silence on the factory floor. The sound of a refrigerator is like birdsong.
Over the past year, a series of player withdrawals has meant some spectacular last-minute changes. Next week, a new actor will take over immediately after press night in Christopher Hampton’s new play. A Visit from an Unknown WomanIn Hampstead. Last year, Patsy Ferran learned the lead role Streetcar Named Desire within days. Now Justine Mitchell has stepped in School attended Following Lia Williams’ departure due to illness. Brightening up the evening.
Kendall Feaver’s play is jam-packed and overly episodic, but it burns. Essentially a debate between different strains of feminism — today’s, post-#MeToo, and a generation ago — it revolves around a girl’s experience of having sex without her consent during her first week at a traditional (i.e., male-heavy) college. You might think there’s nothing new to be said about the debate over whether having sex while drunk counts as rape, but Feaver’s analysis continues to twist, balance, and shift sympathies.
Liv Hill is spot-on as the rather vapid Paige, the eager-to-be-manipulated student-victim. Phoebe Campbell is sharp as the older girl who takes on her case: clever on microaggressions, both genuinely intelligent and infuriating in her attack on the dominant culture. Susannah Wise takes the case for the accused child properly (something you don’t expect to hear). Mitchell is terrific. As the college’s first female principal (note the title), a former journalist who charms her students by wearing sneakers to formal dinners, she is intoxicatingly free-thinking, eloquent and foul-mouthed; she is also intoxicating herself. She is a reminder of the pleasures and perils of charisma.
Star ratings (out of five)
Slave Game ★★★
Skeleton crew ★★★
School attended ★★★★
-
Slave Game At the Noel Coward Theatre in London until 21 September
-
Skeleton crew At the Donmar Warehouse in London until August 24th
-
School attended At the Almeida in London until July 20