Gareth's Culture and Travel Blog

I’m pleased I saw this before I saw any reviews, though its going to be interesting reading them. It’s difficult to say much withouts spoilers, but I’ll try. Whatever you think of Jackie Sibbles Drury’s Pulitzer prizewinning play, it will certainly generate a debate.

Her subject is the perceptions, preconceptions and attitudes white people have of black people and the stereotypes that result. In the first part we’re watching a black middle class family in what feels like an American TV sitcom. They’re about to celebrate grandma’s birthday. I can best describe the second part as ‘gogglebox, sound only’ as the first part is repeated and extended. The table is laid, and some, and grandma and the remaining guests arrive. I would describe the third part as ‘invasion of the sitcom’. In the fourth part the audience are set a challenge, take some time to rise to it, and the first part characters leave the stage.

She has some good points to make, but they lose their impact under the weight of its heavy-handedness. The first part gets a bit dull, as you’re waiting to see where its going, the second part is way too long, the third is surreal and OTT and the fourth somewhat manipulative and preachy. I’m afraid she lost my engagement with the message by metaphorically hitting me on the head for 100 minutes. It’s clever, it’s original, its brave, it’s well performed, and Tom Scutt’s design is brilliant, but it’s too forthright and angry and this becomes counter-productive.