Tag Archives: Recommended Show

A GOOD HOUSE

★★★★

Royal Court

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A GOOD HOUSE

Royal Court

★★★★

“The performances and the dynamics are gripping”

The time is now. The setting is the evocatively named small town of Stillwater which, we are told is located ‘wherever that may be’. Although it is clear we are in South Africa. But switch the accents and we could be anywhere in the world; from the Redneck belt of the Southern US to a provincial English backwater. The poignancy that oozes from Amy Jephta’s one act play, “A Good House”, is universal. The smalltown sensibilities that fester unchecked on a microscope slide are magnified into a thrilling and acerbic dissection of community politics. Bitter, sweet, dangerous and funny; it challenges and twists our expectations.

Sihle (Sifiso Mazibuko) and Bonolo (Mimî M Khayisa) are new to the area. They are getting to know relative old timers Chris (Scott Sparrow) and Lynette (Olivia Darnley). It is, in fact, two years since Sihle and Bonolo moved to the neighbourhood: a telling fact. A brief, highly charged prologue precedes the opening scenes in which Sihle and Chris first meet each other under different circumstances. It sets up the dynamics and highlights the innate and institutionalised racism that is embedded in the tarmac of the residents’ matching driveways. We think we are in Mike Leigh territory for a moment. Wine is slowly (alas too slowly) poured and polite conversation trips over awkward faux pas. But Jephta pulls it out by the scruff of the neck, while Nancy Medina’s direction cracks the whip, drives out the Pinteresque pauses and sends it galloping off through the overlapping dialogue.

Sparrow’s Chris is clumsily ‘right on’ and obsequious in the extreme. We quickly know that he can’t be trusted. Similarly, Darnley’s over-eager Lynette is a Cape Town Sloane Ranger – if such a thing exists. Sihle and Bonolo have sussed them out. A freeze-frame device intermittently sets certain characters in suspended animation while the others are free to vent the true feelings that lie hidden beneath the chit chat. The performances and the dynamics are gripping. Mazibuko fills the stage with the imposing figure of Sihle, seemingly – and only initially – compliant with the reactions provoked by his skin colour and background. Khayisa’s portrayal of the no-nonsense Bonolo is a master stroke that surprises us with some refreshingly unexpected views on society and race.

In their suburban community, a mysterious shack has sprung up – the inhabitants nowhere to be seen. Speculation abounds as to who is responsible for this eyesore, and with this speculation the petty bigotry feeds on itself and multiplies. Andrew (Kai Luke Brummer) and Jess (Robyn Rainsford) are the couple most affected, the shack being on their doorstep. Brummer and Rainsford are a perfect match depicting the ‘perfect suburban couple’ – in other words gauche and full of gaffes, embarrassing indiscretions, bigotry and fanaticism.

The shack, although a real structure, is also clearly an allegory. The anonymity of its occupants is seen as being dangerous. Fear abounds, naturally. The writing and the performances ridicule and make a mockery of it all, quite rightly, but also highlight the conflicts and the tensions. The petty prejudices cut far deeper than overt racism. We get a real sense of the institutionalised racism that breeds in these small-town minds that, if left untended, can grow like knotweed.

“A Good House” is a very modern satire. Its façade is a comedy but behind its closed doors lies quite a different story. If I were you, I’d think twice about borrowing a cup of sugar in Stillwater. But I wouldn’t think twice about seeing the play. Just be prepared to find splinters of glass mixed in with the sugar.

 



A GOOD HOUSE

Royal Court

Reviewed on 17th January 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Camilla Greenwell

 

 

 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

THE BOUNDS | ★★★ | June 2024
LIE LOW | ★★★★ | May 2024
BLUETS | ★★★ | May 2024
GUNTER | ★★★★ | April 2024
COWBOIS | ★★★★★ | January 2024
MATES IN CHELSEA | ★★★ | November 2023
CUCKOO | ★★½ | July 2023
BLACK SUPERHERO | ★★★★ | March 2023
FOR BLACK BOYS … | ★★★★★ | April 2022

A GOOD HOUSE

A GOOD HOUSE

A GOOD HOUSE

 

 

THE LONELY LONDONERS

★★★★

Kiln Theatre

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THE LONELY LONDONERS

Kiln Theatre

★★★★

“a moving, funny and exhilarating play”

Bristling with excellent performances from an outstanding ensemble class, The Lonely Londoners is a powerful tale of migration, adaptation and the struggles of getting by in a cold and unwelcoming city. Director Ebenezer Bamgboye brings Roy Williams’ critically acclaimed stage adaptation of Sam Selvon’s seminal novel on the Windrush Generation to the Kiln Theatre for a second run with the original cast, following a successful debut last year at the Jermyn Street Theatre.

Central to the novel is its oral quality. Foregrounding the intricacies and rhythms of Caribbean English, the characters tell their stories of love and flirtation, experiences of racism, employment difficulties, and battles with the cold, and capturing this style and energy presents challenge to any adaptor, and the play meets this challenge successfully. The sparse stage setting (work of Laura Ann Price), consisting of six packing boxes – one for each character, centres the narratives told by the characters. Much of the action unfolds in the flat of lead character Moses (played brilliantly by Solomon Israel), a longstanding migrant from Trinidad living in London, who helps new arrivals and others find their feet. Within his house, his friends and acquaintances bum cigarettes and share stories, the minimalist staging focusing attention onto the language and storytelling of its characters.

This is reinforced by the innovative lighting design by Elliot Griggs, with a backdrop of lighted squares that change colour, brighten and darken, and flash in intense strobe-like patterns, echoing the narrative and this is supported by modern musical choices. Complementing the experimental lighting are sung sections performed with ethereal beauty by Aimée Powell – in the role of Moses’ partner in Trinidad – and interpretive dance sections which convey those emotions that the men struggle to easily express through speech. This expressionistic layer adds further depth to play.

All the performers are fantastic. Romario Simpson excels in the role of Galahad, a loud-talking new arrival determined to make London his. Gilbert Kyem Jnr shines as Big City, a physically imposing ‘hustler’ who struggles to remember places names, to great comedic effect. Shannon Hayes and Carol Moses are alternately moving and hilarious as mother- (Tanty) and daughter-in-law (Agnes), brought over to London on the back of stories of success from their son and husband, Lewis, played by Tobi Bakare. In placing Tanty and Agnes’ stories at the centre of the play, the new adaptation inserts female experience into a narrative which, in its original telling, was very masculine dominated.

Tobi Bakare’s performance deserves special mention, as Lewis provides an insight into the questions that are the heart of the play. We see his struggles most clearly as he battles against unemployment in a patriarchal society that places a man’s work as his purpose, racism in a country that told him it was his Motherland, his own misogynistic double standards that cause him to become jealous of his wife and finally alcohol, which he turns to quiet the inside of his head. Through all these profound emotional changes, Bakare is compelling to watch, especially in his struggle to write down his feelings when prompted by Moses.

The Lonely Londoners is a moving, funny and exhilarating play, and the difficulties and successes of its characters are a captivating narrative. Its final note is a love letter to London, a city that is as tough, beautiful, worn down and resilient as the characters themselves.



THE LONELY LONDONERS

Kiln Theatre

Reviewed on 16th January 2025

by Rob Tomlinson

Photography by Steve Gregson

 

 


 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

TWO STRANGERS (CARRY A CAKE ACROSS NEW YORK) | ★★★★★ | November 2023

HE LONELY LONDONERS

THE LONELY LONDONERS

E LONELY LONDONERS