Slave Play

I saw a review that started with ‘it’s impossible to review this play without spoilers’ so obviously I stopped reading.  That meant for the first half hour I had absolutely no idea what was going on.  Then we get a reveal, triggered by the word ‘Starbucks’ when it starts to make (just a little) more sense.  Liberal in its use of degrading racial slurs and stereotypes, and with sex as a constant focus, it succeeds at keeping us uncomfortable throughout.  Initially this is because of the overdone nature of what we are seeing being played out on a plantation, but after that initial reveal it gets, if anything, even more tough as we explore the undercurrents between the couples on stage.  Stunning performances from everyone, but Fisayo Akinade as Gary stood out for me in particular with such a nuanced performance.  The final shocking scene between Kit Harrington as Jim and Olivia Washington as Kaneisha came close, both incredibly uncomfortable and powerful, not just due to the subject matter, but again those performances.

Very American in places with cultural differences which meant it didn’t exactly hit the same way for a British audience but that didn’t really dilute the power of this piece which kicks off from the lasting legacy of colonialism and slavery.  Lurching from comedy to powerful drama and back again from one minute to the next, this isn’t a cosy wrapped up sort of a play and it had the audience properly debating (and sometimes even arguing) about what they had seen on the way out - now that’s a play that has had an impact! 

There was a bit of a fuss about ‘Black out nights’ but if there was ever a play that warranted it, this might be the one. Really digging into the personal politics around race, sex, sexuality, power and identity this deeply uncomfortable but powerful theatre had me thinking hard about my own cosy liberal lefty assumptions.  And that is what theatre does best I think.  For me it stands as a partner piece to some other recent plays,  A Strange Loop which looked specifically at the Black Queer experience and For Black Boys Who... which took a British angle; each stands out on their own as something unique but this was perhaps the most challenging. 

If you are going to see it, I recommend don’t read up beforehand but be prepared to stick with it when it gets weird as it explores every connotation of the words in the title. 

Finally, one of the pleasures of going to the theatre on your own is chatting to other solitary theatre goers and I had a lovely conversation with someone who had also seen Mnemonic last week, and we worked out a bit more about that pretty complicated play together while we were waiting for this one to start.  We started unpicking this one too on our walk out of the theatre (seats in the balcony again so it was a long walk!) but I think it's going to take a bit more digesting yet.