What a pugilistic theatrical week it has been. Three broadly political plays, motored more by talk than physical action, that punch, reproach and argue. To varied effect.
Flaring and poking (there is plenty of that), Slave Play arrives in London having fired up Broadway. In the weeks before opening night, its author, Jeremy O Harris, was denounced by the then prime minister, Rishi Sunak, for designating two performances as specifically for black audiences. I disagree. Not least because one side effect of the primary aim of “black out” performances – to encourage audiences habitually absent from the stalls – has the incidental effect of making me as a white woman (not, incidentally, banned from these nights, just not specially invited) realise how implicitly welcomed I generally am. In 2020/21, 93% of audiences at Arts Council-funded theatres were white.
