This extraordinary, sprawling play about a mixed-race couple failing to escape the segregated South Carolina of 1918 was written by the pioneering black American writer Alice Childress in 1962. It wasn’t staged in New York until 1972 and hasn’t had a major London production until now.
It’s an exhilarating find, blending politics, prejudice, social realism, melodrama and romance. Monique Touko’s swaggering production leans into the contradictions. I loved 90 per cent of it and was exasperated by the remainder, but this rediscovery is more exciting than half a dozen tired revivals.
