Terique Jarrett plays Franklin
(Picture: Marc Brenner)A functioning, onstage swimming pool is possibly the least audacious thing in American writer Jeremy O. Harris’s exploration of power, value and worth. The story of a young, black artist seduced by an older, rich, white collector in his modernist Bel Air lair is billed and staged as a melodrama. It features a three-woman gospel choir, racially charged gay sex play and acres of nudity.
There’s a riveting, exposing performance from relative newcomer Terique Jarrett as the artist Franklin, and an insouciantly creepy turn from Claes Bang, the Danish star of the BBC’s Dracula, as his sugar daddy, Andre. Franklin starts off calling Andre “sir” then progresses to calling him “daddy”. Trust me, it gets weirder from there.
