Last night Stuart and I went to see Jeremy O. Harris's extraordinary play about race, identity and sexuality Slave Play at the Noël Coward Theatre in London's glitzy West End.
Yes, the headlines will all be about Kit Harington's full-frontal nudity - and indeed nothing is left to the imagination - and the last Government's criticism of the show's upcoming 'Black Out' nights (two performances aimed at an 'all-black-identifying audience' that is 'free from the white gaze').
But don't let the headlines fool you. The nudity is the least shocking thing in the play. And seeing as the play is about the virus of racism, gender, race, class, colourism, and racial marginalisation - 'Black Out' nights seem the wrong (and the least of the) things to get angry about.
Robert O'Hara direction is assured and committed. We see three mixed-heritage couples each play-acting racially charged sex scenes and then in afterwards in therapy discussing their feelings. The action is shocking, then funny, and finally brutal.
Power dynamics fountain to the surface between first couple enraged Kaneisha (Olivia Washington) and repressed Jim (Kit Harington).
The second couple, Phillip (Aaron Heffernan) a mixed-heritage hunk enlisted to spice up the boring marriage of the annoying Alana (Annie McNamara), are largely there for comic effect.
More fully realised out are the black, middle-class Gary (Fisayo Akinade) and Dustin (James Cusati-Moyer), who looks white but identifies as 'other' - much to Gary's ire.
The master-slave role play in the first act between all three couples is deliberately theatrical - less we think it real.
The second act of the therapy circle, with counsellors Teá (Chalia La Tour) and Patricia (Irene Sofia Lucio) speaking in comic buzzwords, is funny at first. But soon things spiral out of the control.
The final act is truly shocking, and deliberately so.
At the curtain call no-one is smiling as much as open-mouthed. But the standing ovation says it all. This is event theatre.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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