An important piece of writing marred by heavy-handed direction Rating
Good!
I miss blackouts. There, I’ve said it. Honestly, scene transitions that replace darkness with portentous bits of physical theatre and deafening soundscapes have become a menace I will be tremendously pleased to see the back of.
At times, After Sunday, an otherwise wonderfully judged naturalistic character study, and a much-needed commentary on our country’s woeful approach to mental health, is turned into a space opera with a soundtrack that is somewhere between Blade Runner and a piano falling down the stairs.
The cast battles through, fortunately, and the writing flows thanks to Sophia Griffin’s tremendous ear for dialogue. Her debut play is surely as close as most of us will get to eavesdropping in a medium-secure hospital Activities for Daily Living kitchen. Her text avoids the clichés of troubled Black men fighting the system and feels full of truth and reality. It feels lived. It bears witness. I know this makes After Sunday sound like a tough watch, but there’s wit, charm and a surprising amount of humour. The threat of violence, when it comes, is very real, too, though. It’s a rollercoaster. Exactly, I suspect, as life in such a facility would be.
Claire Winfield’s set design appears to give us a functioning kitchen, but the actual cooking underwhelms. Bowls are passed round and flour thrown about, but there’s no genuine heat or spice, which feels a shame. There’s no harm done, though, because all the realism we need comes from the talented cast. At their centre is Aimée Powell as Occupational Therapist and cooking class instructor Naomi. Her performance is understated and grounded, but all the more powerful for it. Her class is made up of Ty (Corey Weekes), Daniel (Darrel Bailey) and Leroy (David Webber). Weekes establishes himself as the comic centre of the piece, early on, with exquisite timing, which makes Ty’s moments of anguish all the more harrowing. Bailey has a monologue about a family on the outside that tears your heart to pieces. Webber, as old hand Leroy, impresses too. They form an impressive ensemble. Honours shared.
The story, which begins with an offstage death and proceeds through the preparation of food for a family visitation day, meanders. It’s a messy collection of incidents rather than a tightly structured plot. The revelations, when they come, aren’t twists or turns. They have a sad inevitability to them, instead. It all suits the subject matter, of course. If you hadn’t noticed, the British criminal justice and mental health systems are failing, and failing Black British men especially.
So, After Sunday is quietly, cleverly political. It is the kind of work that we need more of if things are going to change for the better. I wish all involved, but especially director Corey Campbell, had trusted this more and dispensed with a layer of theatricality the play really doesn’t need. The cast doesn’t need to perform weakly choreographed, jerky movements between scenes. The lighting doesn’t need to go haywire, and our eardrums don’t need blasting with a soundscape that has had an aural kitchen sink hurled at it.
I’m not being a cantankerous old critic for the sake of it. There is such clarity and emotional weight in Griffin’s writing that extraneous flourishes feel like crashing distractions from the humanity on stage. When the excellent performances are allowed to unfold naturally, the results become genuinely affecting, revealing the quiet dignity and resilience of people all too easily ostracised. It’s in these moments that the play truly shines.
Written by Sophia Griffin
Directed by Corey Campbell
Dramaturg: Grace Barrington
Set Design: Claire Winfield
Sound Design: Xana
Lighting Design: Ali Hunter
Costume Design: Naomi Thompson
Lead Producer for The Bush Theatre: Emma Halstead
Director of Producing For Belgrade Theatre: Adel Al-Salloum
After Sunday plays at The Bush Theatre until Saturday 20 December
