Review Roundup: DEATH OF ENGLAND Opens at @sohoplace

Clint Dyer and Roy Williams' three state of the nation plays, Death of England: Michael, Death of England: Delroy and Death of England: Closing Time are being performed together in the West End for the very first time as a unique theatrical event for a strictly limited season @sohoplace theatre.

Starring Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You, The Lazarus Project), Thomas Coombes (Baby Reindeer, Luther: The Fallen Sky), Erin Doherty (The Crown, Chloe) and Sharon Duncan-Brewster (Dune, Sex Education) and directed by Clint Dyer.

These three interconnected plays can be watched as a stand-alone experience or seen together. Across the three plays, connections and themes come together as Michael, Delroy, Denise and Carly navigate the joys and challenges of what it means to be British in 2024.

Performances for Death of England: Michael began on 15 July, Death of England: Delroy began on 23 July and Death of England: Closing Time will begin on 22 August, when all three plays will then be performed in rep until 28 September.

Thomas Coombes (Baby Reindeer, Luther: The Fallen Sky) stars in Death of England: Michael, Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You, The Lazarus Project) stars in Death of England: Delroy and Erin Doherty (The Crown, Chloe) and Sharon Duncan-Brewster (Dune, Sex Education) star as Carly and Denise in Death of England: Closing Time.

The Death of England plays are directed by Clint Dyer, Deputy Artistic Director of The National Theatre.

See what the critics are saying...

Alexander Cohen, BroadwayWorld: Roy Williams’s brilliance as a writer lies in the way he delicately coils intimacy into Michael’s soul. As much as boiling hated bubbles, he cannot overcome the love that hangs around his neck like a millstone. Coombes’ happy-go-lucky blokey demeanour delivers the knuckle fisted punches, but not all the blows land.

Alexander Cohen, BroadwayWorld: Essiedu really is a force of nature. Totally at ease, working the audience like a stand-up comic, then, with fox-like agility, backstabbing them with guttural force and working up to a symphonic crescendo. For Michael I noted that Roy Williams’s brilliance as a writer lies in the way he delicately coils loving intimacy into the character’s DNA. Not matter how tempestuous the storm clouds of paranoia and hate are, a ray of light can always shine through. Watching Essiedu find that light is breath taking.

Arifa Akbar, The Guardian: The world has changed since Clint Dyer and Roy Williams’ sweary, swaggery, dysfunctional near-family first railed about their lives, shaped by Brexit Britain, in fast, fulminating dramatic monologue. As a trilogy of plays, it began with Michael, the son of a racist flower-seller, originally played by Rafe Spall, who told his lairy story at his father’s funeral. Then, a monologue by his Black British best friend, Delroy, about police profiling and his mixed-race relationship with Michael’s sister, Carly. These revivals are updated to reflect our world, post-Covid and post-Boris so we recognise the antagonised politics of class, masculine identity and race hate currently coursing through our society, from far-right violence (Southport is not named but it may as well be) to Nigel Farage.

Olivia Rook, London Theatre: Staged in rep for the first time and sharing press performances on 30 July, Michael and Delroy have gone off without a hitch, with Closing Time beginning previews on 22 August. While the shows can still be seen individually, they’re dynamite in rep, the interconnected stories and different narrative perspectives offering a far richer understanding of what it means to be British when viewed together.

Anya Ryan, TimeOut London: Back to back, the plays make Dyer and Williams’s analysis of Britain’s complications prick even deeper. The men are both stuck in states of contradiction: the difference between their thoughts and feelings are articulated throughout. Their present merges with their past: with a flash of light the language switches from narration to furious action. The world is so vivid that if there’s a weakness here it’s that I longed for more insight into the side characters – there is the sense that this is a series that could roll on, eternally. Full of rage, love, pride and deep bewilderment, these are stories that are grown authentically on British soil and are desperate for a stage.

Average Rating: 70.0%

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