Peter Viney's Blog

By Chadwick Boseman

Directed by Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu

Designed by Paul Willis

Composers Conrad Murray & John Pfumojena

The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
at Shakespeare’s Globe

Tuesday 10th March 2026, 14.00

CAST
Elijah Cook- Tone
Jayden Elijah – Deep
Aminta Francis – Street Knowledge of Good, Deep’s mother
Selina Jones – Azure Ryn Alleyne- cover
Justice Ritchie – Roshad
Imani Yahshua – Street Knowledge of Evil
Ryn Alleyne- ensemble / cover
Maxwell Chartey – ensemble / cover
Aaron Alexander – singer / ensemble
Nadine Rose Johnson – Beatboxer / ensemble
Khai Shaw – Beatboxer / ensemble
Khalil Madovi – singer / ensemble

The Globe credits never cease to irritate. Candlelight Designer comes third, designer comes eigth, director tenth, writer eighteenth. You can take democracy too far. What an odd location. The Wanamaker Playhouse is reproducing the feel and discomfort of an early 17th century indoor theatre? Still, it does make sense to keep the Wanamaker going through the winter. Nevertheless, the setting feels incongruous. They use the candles and lift and lower them a lot, but there are parts where they add some electric lighting,

On the previous evening at The Bridge (Monday night) the lead had an understudy after the Sunday off. Here we are at a Tuesday matinee and the cover, Ryn Allene, is reading in for the lead role of Azure. I recall the Graham Norton show with three experienced actors on the sofa and one said how funny it was that the lead role so often got indisposed the day after a break or on a weekday matinee. The others fell apart laughing and nodding. Ryn Alleyne was part of the ensemble and she knew all the physical moves anyway. I noted ensemble scenes with three on one side and two on the other and she was obviously the missing one. Ryn gave a brilliant full on emotional performance as Azure and if she hadn’t had to read you wouldn’t have noticed she that was covering. Cynicism takes me for the second day running. We ate in the Swan restaurant at The Globe after the play and walked back through The Globe. The programme sellers were set up at 7 p.m. and guess what? There were no ‘Selina Jones is indisposed’ notices and I asked if it was full cast for the 7.30 performance. Yes, it was. Congratulations to Selina on her rapid recovery. Considering the theatre was virtually full, demerits to the company for trying to short change the matinee. In the end, we weren’t short changed. I only hope it gives the wonderful Ryn Alleyne a career boost.

The whole cast pushed Ryn Alleyne forward for separate bows and she was overwhelmed at her thoroughly deserved 100% standing ovation.

The play was written in 2005 by Chadwick Boseman, the later superhero star actor (Marvel’s Black Panther), who died in 2020. It’s written in verse. The play was a response to the murder of a fellow student, Prince Jones, by a black police officer.

In the play, ‘Deep’ is the student whose real name is Joshua Smith. ‘Joshua’ is the Aramaic for Jesus.He appears from beyond and in flashback. Azure is his distraught girlfriend. After his death, she is living in the house of Tone, a police agent, and Roshad a poltical agitator on campus. Tone fancies Azure.

The play was performed briefly in Chicago in 2005. This new and elaborate production has a large chorus / ensemble. I would have loved to have been able to buy a play text, but there weren’t any. Was this chorus part of the original concept? We thought it the best thing about it. Oddly, the Time Out review (Time Out gives virtually every play three stars) moaned about the chorus and wanted to see ot stripped to the basic story and text. Wrong. The chorus was so creative and totally different. They first appear in silver futuristic suits. Power Rangers?

Then the choral ‘huh huh huh’ was Laurie Anderson’s O Superman. But we had robotic dance movement. The Cat in Red Dwarf? Michael Jackson? Or was it Stravinsky’s chthonic dancers from Rite of Spring? Was it Mayakovsky’s woman from the future? Or the play within a play from The Seagull? There was hip hop. There was doo wop. There was the Cheers theme. Later we had smooth soul, such as You’re All I Need To Get By. There was a lot of gospel. There were Shakespeare quotes (justifyig its location?) There was The Star Spangled Banner. I watched footage of Minneapolis just weeks ago and hummed they’re treading out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. The some line resonated when Trump started bombing Iran the week before the play.

In the second part the chorus open in sports cheerleader uniforms emblazoned with “Mecca.” Then revert to coloured boiler suits.

They’re keeping the surprise back, None of the chorus scenes I want to remember are in the photo galleries for the play. These stick to the central eternal triangle (or not) story.

Aminta Francis becomes Street Knowledge of Good. Imani Yahshua – becomes Street Knowledge of Evil, doubling with Officer Smith, the cop who shot Deep dead. No plot spoilers,

This would have been booked in and cast before Minneapolis, but could shooting an innocent person dead in a car be more apposite?

It is long, but not as long as advertised,. It started at 14,00. The board outside said first part 1 hour 28 minutes.Then they started nearly ten minutes late (rock concert style). On those hard seats, no one wants an extra ten minutes. Nevertheless we were in the lobby for the interval at 15.20. Has it been cut after earlier notes on its length?

Sadly none of the photos give you an idea of the sparkle and originality of the chorus. All focus on the central character story.

The originality, the sounds, even the gunshots are vocal, outweigh the central theme. It is confusing in places, as reviews note, and the verse is one of its main features, but that does not add to clarity. There is a long aside equating Tone (the agent) with Rasputin that apparently has no significance, it’s hard to tell given accents and verse. It probably needed a later edit.

Sheer creativity and originality win the day and they may be the director and production. For a change we might have been the oldest in the audience and it received an instant standing ovation.

OVERALL” FOUR STARS ****, and that’s in spite of the reading in of the lead role.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

four star
The Reviews Hub **** 1/2
Sarah Crompton, What’s On Stage ****
Dave Fargnoli, The Stage ****

three star
Arif Akbar, The Guardian ***
Nick Curtis, The Standard ***
Daz Gale, All That Dazzles ***
Andrzej Lukowski, Time Out ***

two star
Fiona Mountford, The Telegraph **