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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Arifa Akbar

Death of England: Closing Time review – bombshell rants fail to land as the men watch the footie

In pitched battle … Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Denise and Erin Doherty as Carly in Death of England: Closing Time.
In pitched battle … Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Denise and Erin Doherty as Carly in Death of England: Closing Time. Photograph: Helen Murray

Mixed race relationships are under angry scrutiny on the West End stage: Jeremy O Harris’s Slave Play dissects sex and power through the prism of America’s legacy of slavery, while this reprised third instalment of Clint Dyer and Roy Williams’ trilogy offers a British perspective – with mixed results.

We have heard from the men: Michael, raised by a white racist father, and Delroy, his Black British, pro-Brexit best friend. Now it’s time for the women to have their say. In one corner is Carly (Erin Doherty), Michael’s sister and Delroy’s partner. In the other is her mother-in-law, Denise (Sharon Duncan-Brewster). The joint business venture they embarked upon has folded after a social media scandal that involved Carly’s (racist?) fetishisation of Black men.

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