A Good House

This play dives straight into action with the opening scene between two men as Christopher assumes that Sihle (Sifiso Mazibuko) is a workman associated with the truck that is blocking his driveway, only to find out that they are actually new neighbours in suburbia, having renovations done.  This sets the scene pretty well as a sharp comedy/satire about prejudice and privilege, class and wealth which is as entertaining as it is uncomfortable in places.  

We meet three couples in the neighbourhood, firstly Christopher and Lynette, white and well established; Lynette manages sale of the properties and ‘encourages’ the right sort of people.  Another white couple, Andrew and Jess who have stretched themselves to live in the estate and don’t really feel they fit, and then there are Sihle and Bonola, a Black couple, aspirational professionals who have worked hard to get where they are.  Bonolo (Mimî M Khayisa) in particular is very wedded to showing that they belong in this community (Sihle describes her as 'bougie as fuck') showing off her special cheese knife and wine aerator with pride when Christopher and Lynette come to visit.  However, the toe curling and awkward assumptions and statements from the other neighbours, including when Christopher 'forgets' to include Bonolo and Sihle in the community whatsapp group, means they maybe don’t have such a sure footing on insider status as they thought.  

The catalyst here is a shack that has been built on an empty plot.  This cleverly sits at the intersection between so many worries of each of the different groups.  Speculation about who may be living there, what it might bring to the neighbourhood, including being 'overrun' and how it will affect the lives of the other residents, their property values and their safety are taken seriously by all three couples, and Bonolo and Sihle struggle with whether they should feel solidarity with the potential shack dwellers or whether they should align themselves with the other property owners.  When they are asked to make the request to evict, on behalf of all of the other neighbours 'for the optics', it's clear they have to choose a side.

The casual racism, assumptions and prejudice showed here are pretty well done .  For example when Bonolo and Sihle call on Andrew, he assumes that they are the shack dwellers, and more subtly Christopher's finger wag towards Sihle when he warns about loud music and parties. How Bonolo and Sihle deal with this position and try to decide which side they are on is where the meat of the play lies. Bonolo chooses to call out the prejudice and micro aggression when she sees it, while Sihle laughs it off, going with the flow. The interludes where the action freezes so that Bonolo and  Sihle can show their internal thoughts and feelings were a bit clunky but did serve a purpose. Sihle often uses Zulu (a language that Bonolo doesn't understand very well)  when expressing his real thoughts, and I found a translation online (taken from the script) to his words towards the end of the play which are worth repeating here ''Remember to be invisible and move slowly so you don’t wake them. Sometimes it is best not to wake them; few things in the world are as dangerous as sleepwalkers.'' Although the script and dialogue was sometimes a bit obvious in hammering the point, overall the writing in this was very good as the couple twist and turn their way to decide where they belong.  

An excellent small cast, with a simple but effective set, with the shack in the background, sometimes hidden but always there, lurking, while the living rooms are set up in front for the various interactions to play out.  I liked the care taken on the scene changes between the two living rooms showing how they are the same but different, but also how proud each couple is of their home, although this did make the play quite a bit longer than it otherwise needed to be.  

This play spends just over an hour and a half exploring what it means to belong, whether an insider or an outsider, and how racism, class. aspiration and property values feed into that.  This is set in South Africa but really it translates pretty well to the UK or probably any society with aspirational classes. It also works pretty well as a metaphor for those wider conversations that are going on about migration and even the culture wars.  Who is ‘us’ and who is ‘them’ how do we categorise each group and where do we belong?

Up in the gods in the cheap seats at the Royal Court is generally a pretty good view if the audience behaves.  On this occasion apart from a couple of fidgety people, we had a good view.   However, the group behind us who thought it was a great idea to bring a ginormous family size bag of crisps to a very talky play certainly were different, and the rustling and crunching sounds carried on despite my Paddington style hard stares until someone closer shushed them in a very assertive way.

I really enjoyed this - so many threads pulled at and tangled in together, making it both thought provoking and fun.  It's a co-production with Bristol Old Vic so I expect it will be seen elsewhere in coming months and it's definitely worth a look if you can.