Review: Failure Project, Soho Theatre

Ade is preparing for her latest play to be staged – an off-West End production that has been in development for several months. At first she was thrilled that it was picked up; the theatre loved it, loved her story of being the ‘day girl’ at an elite school. Then, they brought in a director with a different vision. Replaced her with an ‘influencer’ for the lead role. Chopped up her script until it was a version of her life that was alien to her. But at least it’s going to be seen, right?

Failure Project is wonderfully paced, oscillating between laugh-out-loud funny, heartbreaking and rage-inducing, and turning on a dime. It’s a testament to writer and performer Yolanda Mercy’s skill as a writer and performer that none of the drastic tonal shifts feel out of place. They’re instead perfectly timed to dispel tension or serve as a harsh reminder of how cruel and uncaring the world can be – especially (as Ade well knows) to people who look like her: Black women from South London.

There’s a fetishisation of the life others expect her to have led, made up of caricatures and stereotypes, and an insistence that her work must be about pain, suffering. At one point her idea for a play about a scientist’s ethical dilemma is met with a blank response until she adds that the protagonist is racially targeted. The producer she’s speaking to then asks her to write a script based on the life of a 12-year-old boy who was killed in gang violence. They think she’ll be a perfect fit for the story.

For her part, Ade has a lot of things to say to the injustices she’s dealt, but she doesn’t say them. She instead prioritises keeping quiet, going along the path of least resistance in the hope that it will be less painful.

Finally reaching the end of her tether, after personal tragedy, professional frustrations and general mistreatment from the world at large, Failure Project eventually sees Ade speak up. It’s the ideal place for a barnstormer of a speech, the rightful fury that has built up over the past 75 minutes aching to be set free, but instead the play closes with little ceremony. There’s impact, but a slight absence of the catharsis that could draw instant whoops from the crowd.

Regardless, Mercy has an undeniable stage presence, immediately connecting with those in the room and drawing them into Ade’s story. She’s aware and receptive to the audience; when someone clearly recognises the scenario she’s recounting, she speaks to them. There are passages of call and response. Those who arrive late are lovingly but pointedly singled out. It makes for a warm and communal experience – something aided by the intimate space of Soho Theatre’s upstairs studio.

Despite being a one-woman show in a black box theatre, lighting and sound transport the audience between tube stations and deafening clubs to family homes. The differences between each scene are often subtle, but create remarkably grounded spaces. At no point is there confusion as to where we are, or who we are with – spotlights standing in for absent bodies fill up the stage, and Mercy’s skilful differentiations between the fairly large cast of characters build out the world around her.

This is a wonderful piece, an emotional rollercoaster with a lot to say and a deft way of saying it. Stuffed with ideas yet never oversaturated, Mercy’s design and execution of Failure Project is a world away from its title.

Written and co-directed by: Yolanda Mercy
Directed by: Yolanda Mercy and Joseph Barnes Phillips
Dramaturg: Joseph Barnes Phillips and Jules Haworth
Sound Design by: Mikaiyiri

Failure Project plays at Soho Theatre until Saturday 14 June

It also plays at Norwich Theatre on 20 June. Further information and bookings available here.