This play by Nathan Powell, appointed creative director at Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse last year after Suba Das’s departure, is not a tightly structured, slick affair. But, directed by Amanda Huxtable, it is enormous fun, full of heart and undeniably entertaining. If this first play is a measure of his ambition, Powell intends to be a crowd-pleaser. Takeaway wouldn’t be out of place in the unabashedly popular Royal Court across town.
The title refers to Hyltons, a community-loved, family-run Caribbean cafe headed up by matriarch Carol (Phina Oruche) and her two “British pickney” adult daughters, Browning (Adi Alfa) and Shelly (Bene Sebuyange). At the heart of Toxteth, “Toccy” to the locals, the takeaway is set to become a victim of gentrification, a change against which local young people are either rioting or leading an uprising, depending on which character’s point of view you agree with. Either way, the local football pitches are being set ablaze and the offices of the would-be property developers are under attack.
