debbie tucker green is a highly original playwright, and the first scene of this three-part study of modern racism and its historical origins is brilliant, a mother and son discussing how behaviour, posture, body language and facial expressions will be interpreted when he is apprehended. From here, we see what happens when a playwright directs their own work i.e. no-one to challenge her indulgence in overlong scenes which lead to more becoming less.
The first part is a series of scenes, mostly monologues and duologues, where the participants, British and American, all black, share their experiences of racism. It’s brilliant and insightful at the start, but loses you as it goes on and on. The second part is what seems to be a series of discussions between an arrogant, patronising white professor and his black female student about the motivation for gun crimes, and the different interpretation of black and white perpetrators, again interesting but overlong. The third part is a series of video Vox Pop interviews, firstly by white Americans reading out segregation period rules and then white Brits doing the same about slavery, yet again pushed too far.
The playwright is making a direct link between slavery and segregation and contemporary racism, which is perfectly valid, but she fails to acknowledge any progress or offer any hope, and I think there is reason for both. Beautifully performed on a spare stage, the play’s only problem is its structure and length, 2h10m without a break. By lacking objectivity and labouring her points, I felt she weakened her argument, which some judicious editing could have dealt with, hence my point about directing her own work. Who was there to challenge the playwright and help transform the writing from the page to the stage more effectively?
A disappointment from a playwright I have so far admired.
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