__IS LONDON READY FOR SLAVE PLAY?__
At the MacGregor Plantation the Old South is alive and well. The heat in the air, the cotton fields and the power of the whip. Yet nothing is quite as it appears… or maybe it is.
The iconic, controversial, ground-breaking and most Tony Nominated play of all time comes to London. __Fisayo Akinade, James Cusati-Moyer, Kit Harington, Aaron Heffernan, Chalia La Tour, Annie McNamara, Irene Sofia Lucio__ and __Olivia Washington__ star in Jeremy O. Harris’s extraordinary play about race, identity and sexuality in twenty-first century America. Robert O’Hara directs at the intimate Noël Coward Theatre for a strictly limited and unmissable season.
__Assisted Performances__
Audio Described - Saturday 17th August 2.30pm
Captioned - Saturday 3rd August 2.30pm
The overall acting is a bit hammed, rich in strong, exaggerated movements and fighting scenes choreographed by Jade Hackett. In contrast, Harington’s acting exemplifies some self-containment and restraint. In the second act where the discursive part of the therapy begins, Jim writes a letter to his “queen” Kaneisha, illustrating a typical white, straight, heterosexual male ego who only talks but does not listen. Harington’s crystal-like begging tone with his slightly awkward southern accent adds a layer of fragile sincerity, feeling more complex and multilayered.
If the satire of Slave Play can all feel a bit five years ago, that may be because that’s how long it has taken to get from hot-ticket acclaim on Broadway — including 12 Tony award nominations — to the West End. Revived here, it boasts some acute moments and fine performances from its Anglo-American cast. Yet Jeremy O Harris’s play comes across as the sort of ideas-led piece that would stimulate over an hour but has instead unwisely swollen to two hours.
2018 | Off-Broadway |
NYTW Off-Broadway World Premiere Off-Broadway |
2019 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
2021 | Broadway |
Broadway Return Broadway |
West End |
West End |
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