★★★★★

“The pair have an enchanting chemistry – they perfectly capture the awkward nervousness of young love”

Jonathan Harvey’s coming-out and coming-of-age story Beautiful Thing was first performed at the Bush Theatre in 1993. Now, 30 years on, a revival – directed by Anthony Simpson-Pike – has graced the stage of London’s Theatre Royal Stratford East. Strikingly relevant to today and beautifully told, we follow 16-year-old neighbours Jamie (Rilwan Abiola Owokoniran) and Ste (Raphael Akuwudike) as their gentle love story unfolds within the tightknit working-class community of Thamesmead. Jamie clashes with his no-nonsense mother Sandra (Shvorne Marks) and her middle-class boyfriend Tony (Trieve Blackwood-Cambridge) whilst Ste struggles against his abusive, alcoholic father. School drop-out Leah (Scarlett Rayner) and her absent mother complete the trio of houses on which the play focuses.

Owokoniran, a last-minute replacement for Joshua Asaré who dropped out due to personal circumstances, shines in the lead role. He is best when leaning into his young character’s sweetness – parading around in the glasses that Ste likes is a particular highlight – and when wittily sparring with Sandra. Akuwudike does an excellent job at rendering Ste’s cheery disposition as well as his hesitancy and frustration at his family circumstances. The pair have an enchanting chemistry – they perfectly capture the awkward nervousness of young love and are totally believable in it.

Sandra evolves throughout the show and Marks brings a great empathy to her. A self-reliant single mother with a string of younger lovers, she is hurting and craves her son’s affection. Blackwood-Cambridge is hilarious as Tony. His overly sexual movement and mannerisms – directed by Annie-Lunette Deakin-Foster – are excellent. He fully embraces the absurdity of his ill-placed character. He does, however, also deliver real tenderness in his final scenes, elevating his character beyond the clown with great skill.

“It is funny, uplifting and has real heart.”

Rayner provides a great brashness to the proceedings and does great in the play’s climax when her character has a bad trip. She is an effective foil for the other characters – her need to interfere and ask difficult questions drives much of the plot.

Rosie Elnile has designed a gorgeous set. We see the cream concrete exterior of our protagonists’ respective flats. Jamie’s – at the centre – is a rose between two thorns, a basket of flowers and a freshly painted door brighten up the otherwise nondescript façade. Characters enter via the flats or the right-hand side of the stage. The only interior to which we are privy is Jamie’s bedroom – a single bed that juts out from the exterior wall of his flat towards the audience.

Excellent lighting (Elliot Griggs) works wonders to enhance the set. Between scenes, colourful filters coat the set as characters dance and move rhythmically around highlighting the emotion or dynamic(s) of the previous scene. In addition, the lighting is used to grow and reduce the space, most obviously when we are in Jamie’s bedroom, his bed spotlighted, the rest of the stage dimmed to hone our attention onto the single room.

The sound design (Xana) is also thoroughly distinctive – funky, almost Seinfeld-esque beats play to transition us from one scene to the next. The musical stylings of Mama Cass also feature heavily. Her music drifts out from super fan Leah’s flat and her song ‘Dream A Little Dream Of Me’ is an anthem for Jamie and Ste’s acceptance of their sexuality.

Beautiful Thing is a thoroughly touching story of queer joy. It is funny, uplifting and has real heart. The cast bring strong and nuanced performances to their respective characters and the script is brilliantly quick. Time flies whilst watching this play and your cheeks will hurt from smiling at the charming tale. I could not recommend it enough.

ANTHROPOLOGY at the Hampstead Theatre

★★★★

“some interesting twists and turns along the way”

Anthropology, Lauren Gunderson’s new play premiering at the Hampstead Theatre, is a convoluted tale about sibling love that attempts to transcend life as we presently know it. It begins as a tale about a missing woman, and her sister’s refusal to give up the search for her. Since sister Merril is a tech wizard specializing in artificial intelligence, it’s not long before A.I is employed as a tool to help Merril in her mission. But at the heart of Anthropology is an unnerving question: can artificial intelligence mimic humans so well that people begin to respond to them as though A.I was human? And even more chilling: that A.I might produce intellectual and emotional interactions that are somehow even more relatable than the humans they imitate?

Gunderson’s protagonist Merril and her sister Angie have endured a tough childhood marked by their mother’s descent into drug addiction. Merril stepped up as Angie’s parent when mother Brin no longer could, so it’s not surprising that Merril would continue searching for her sister when everyone else has given up. Merril’s grieving is so intense, however, that she turns to A.I not only as a way of trying to find clues about what happened to Angie, but also as a way of maintaining a relationship that she cannot bear to relinquish. A.I Angie, it turns out, is just as prickly and unsettling as the original, and part of the pleasure of Gunderson’s humorous script is watching Merril (played beautifully by MyAnna Buring) caught continually off guard by her digital sibling’s unerring ability to cut to the chase regarding Merril’s failed relationships with lover Raquel (Yolanda Kettle) and mother Brin (Abigail Thaw). There’s a lot more story packed into this tense 90 minute thriller of a plot, and some interesting twists and turns along the way. Ultimately, however, Anthropology is less about the success of artificial intelligence in predicting human behaviour. It is more a story about failed human relationships.

“ninety minutes is too short a time to explore such complex subject matter as artificial intelligence in the context of a family drama”

Anthropology begins encouragingly enough in a gleaming white box of a set, designed by Georgia Lowe, sparsely populated by a podium, a screen, and two open lap tops on the floor. MyAnna Buring as Merril gives an intriguing account of her search for Angie by using A.I to sift through her sister’s digital footprint, looking for clues. Merril is very good at her work, and soon digital Angie has become video Angie, confidently predicting that human Angie may still be alive. There is, however, a price to pay. Merril will have to repair her relationships with Raquel and Brin in order to know for sure. It’s a great set up, and suggests all sorts of directions for the plot to go. The production is further enhanced by a medley of tech inspired lighting (James Whiteside), video design (Daniel Denton) and back projections, plus music and sound design (Max Pappenheim). But what begins promisingly as an exploration of artificial intelligence as solace for grieving (a subject also explored by pioneering sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov), ends up in Anthropology as yet another tale of absent parents and sibling rivalry. Even the wit and sparkle of Gunderson’s dialogue cannot quite disguise the recognition that this is pretty familiar territory, plot wise.

In fairness, ninety minutes is too short a time to explore such complex subject matter as artificial intelligence in the context of a family drama. Anthropology is a very American play; the all female cast treads all too familiar territory in such intimate settings. For all Merril’s high tech bravado, she is still fettered by the assumption that her life and career, are always at the mercy of relationship repair and unmet expectations regarding parenthood. It’s a brave attempt on Gunderson’s part to try to create a cutting edge drama about cutting edge technology. But the results are predictable, given the shortcomings of the humans (still) in charge.

BEAUTIFUL THING at the Theatre Royal Stratford East

★★★★★

“The pair have an enchanting chemistry – they perfectly capture the awkward nervousness of young love”

“It is funny, uplifting and has real heart.”

BEAUTIFUL THING at the Theatre Royal Stratford East

Reviewed on 22nd September 2023

by Flora Doble

Photography by The Other Richard

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Beautiful Thing

Beautiful Thing

ANTHROPOLOGY at the Hampstead Theatre

★★★★

“some interesting twists and turns along the way”

“ninety minutes is too short a time to explore such complex subject matter as artificial intelligence in the context of a family drama”