Given the big debate about diversity in British theatre, it is fascinating to find that 30% of acting students at Rada are black or Asian. That partly explains why the spring season offers a little-known work by Kwame Kwei-Armah as well as the UK premiere of this play by the novelist and poet Pearl Cleage. Set in Harlem in 1930, it is a formally traditional American play that yields a superb performance from its five-strong cast.
Cleage’s focus is on Harlem as its famous cultural renaissance is stalled by economic depression. That has a direct effect on the lives of Guy, a gay costume-designer who dreams of working for Josephine Baker in Paris, and on his friend, Angel, an out-of-work dancer. But their neighbour, Delia, bucks the trend by setting up Harlem’s first birth-control clinic with the aid of a local doctor, Sam. They make a close-knit quartet whose lives are fatally disrupted by the arrival of an Alabama stranger.
Cleage’s play, which owes much to Tennessee Williams, comes to a melodramatic conclusion but offers a riveting picture of Harlem at a moment of historic transition. You get a fierce sense, in Femi Elufowoju Jr’s fine production, of lives being palpably lived and of the conflict between a debt to the community and a desire to escape. All five actors – Kit Young, Grace Saif, Tok Stephen, Leaphia Darko and Michael Balogun – impress and suggest the talent is there if only British theatre is alert enough to welcome it.
- At Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, until 18 February. Box office: 020-7908 4800
