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A richly layered, lyrical work that explores the difficulties for young Black Britons of stepping off the beaten path.Summary
Rating
Good
It’s exciting whenever writer Roy Williams brings out a new play, but All Roads is of particular interest because it deals with the very current subject of suicide amongst young people. With this at its core, we see how the lives of two Black teenagers are blown apart by grief following a tragic loss, before reforming differently. Importantly, the play more widely discloses how, as Black and British, society can set young people up to follow dangerous, hard to exit paths.
Chantel (Kudzai Mangombe) becomes close with Matthew (Tristan Waterson) following the death of her friend Jasmine – his girlfriend – along with another friend, Tasha – Matthew’s sister – who died trying to save her. Williams writes with enthralling lyricism about the characters’ lives leading up to the event, at the point of it and subsequent to it. The work richly illuminates a web of social pressures that impact on the lives of young people. We learn of institutional racism, dysfunctional families, transactional sex as therapy, misogynistic attitudes, toxic masculinity and the looming risk of gang membership. Their repressive world generates emotional insecurity, mental health issues and imposter syndrome, such that it’s understandable when suicide seems the only way out.
Mangombe is wonderfully compelling as Chantel. From the off, she has the audience in the palm of her hand with her winning smile and dynamic confidence. She’s a masterful storyteller, depicting various characters with clarity and skill and injecting delightful humour. Waterson has a challenge to match this charisma, but offers a thoroughly engaging, sometimes deeply emotional performance. Both are versatile performers, impressively using multiple accents and physicalities to describe their wider community. It’s only as the story progresses that the confidence the protagonists exude is revealed to be a veneer, masking fundamental and toxic insecurities. The actors meet the highs and lows of their characters with dexterity.
The production is directed meticulously, with beautiful fluidity by Anastasia Osei Kuffour and includes exceptional movement work by Yassmin V Foster. The bed is put centre stage and it’s here that Chantel and Matthew’s paths repeatedly cross, and where it becomes clear that communication has broken down. It’s captivating to watch as the two performers seem to dance in each other’s proximity, both breaking rules and defining the barriers within their relationship.
The many layers of important themes are generally worked smoothly into the dialogue. Matthew’s father’s spelling out of the dangers of social media algorithms that reinforce online interest in self-harm does seem a bit forced, but perhaps a little clunkiness is no bad thing if it ensures the message is sent?
The one thing that didn’t sit right with me in this play was that the deeply disturbing subject of youth suicide, at the centre of the protagonists’ relationship, becomes slightly muted by the wider exploration of reasons for it and the responses to it. Clearly, the story is about Chantel and Matthew, rather than the unseen girls who died, but in building a depiction of suppressed emotion and social damage the two lost are relegated; the humanity behind the trigger for change is a little glossed over. I would like to see an extra beat to recognise Jasmine and Tasha’s story more fully; a reminder that these are people beneath the statistics. In this tale their deaths prompt possibility and a view of a better future, but in many cases they’d just be another nameless stone on the path of oblivion.
This is a focussed, multi-layered glimpse into the lives of two young Black Britons that asks many vital questions about wider society, about how suicide can come about, and about finding the personal strength to seek alternative paths in life. Well-written and beautifully performed, it’s a fascinating piece of work.
Written by: Roy Williams
Directed by: Anastasia Osei Kuffour
Produced by: Attic in partnership with Tramshed in association with Theatre Peckham and Bernie Grant Arts Centre
Designed by: Zahra Mansouri
Lighting Design by: Jonathan Chan
Sound Design by: Khalil Madovi
Movement Direction by: Yassmin V Foster
All Roads plays at New Wimbledon Studio until 18 March. It also plays at Theatre Peckham (22 – 26 March) and Bernie Grant Arts Centre (30 March – 1 April). Further information and bookings can be found here.
