Black Superhero - Royal Court

I saw the writer Danny Lee Wynter in the Normal Heart and of course Ako Mitchell has been in a lot of musicals. Intrigued!

Saw it last night. Very entertaining; moving and at times extremely funny. Great cast. 

Saw this tonight with the £12 Monday tickets. Thought the premise sounded interesting but wasn't my cup of tea. It seemed to get a warmish response.

When £12 tickets went on sale this morning all three levels were on sale. By afternoon they closed off top circle and there was still lots of available seats in stalls and dress circle. I was in front stalls and didn't have a proper look during show however.

Daughter said that it was pretty full when she went on Friday - but that may well have been because the earlier preview she had booked for was cancelled and so more than one performance's worth of audience was put together on the Friday. She quite enjoyed it - but then she only paid £10 for the ticket.

Think it's a real shame that during the discourse surrounding the Lucy Kirkwood play, there were many complaints about theatres programming the same old writers, and that the RC should be commissioning talented female and minority writers who have been working away at fringe theatres for the past few years.
Then when they do exactly that, they don't sell well.
Easy to claim to be offended and upset, harder to put your money where your mouth is.

I broadly agree with this comment and think you’ve hit the nail on the head with why the Court is not currently top of the pile with audiences looking for the next big hit.

However I thought this was one of their best offerings in a long time. Not perfect but a strong “voice”, a very slick and well-directed and designed production, vivid performances across the board and above all (and absolutely something that can’t be said for the majority of the output under the current leadership) an entertaining night at the theatre.

I’m not saying plays can’t have a point to make or be hard-hitting, but when they’re so “right on” as to be like a lecture, with cheap production values and school-play direction (as some of the recent offerings at the RC have) then they just end up making their point to an almost empty auditorium of bored people who aren’t listening.

So I guess I’m saying I hope this does find its audience as it’s far more deserving, in my opinion, than a lot of other recent work at the same venue.

Well, I tend to agree that broadly speaking the current trends in fringe theatre are a certain type of play which may not sell particularly well somewhere like the RC, and plays that as a whole I'm not particularly interested in seeing personally (as others have said, quite didactic and lacking in more traditional theatrical structures) which is why I think a mixture of established names and new talent would be the most beneficial way to spread out a season.

But when previous seasons were announced with established names, the debate always rages about RC in particular not meeting its remit, that fringe artists 'can't even get a look in/a meeting' and calls for this exact this type of show - so why aren't those same people booking these up when they're announced? If the complaint at the time is that the RC should be more radical in its programming, braver about who is produced, and not about the actual plays, then personally I think those same people should be putting their money where their mouth is and booking as soon as it's announced, rather than waiting for the reviews or word of mouth, otherwise their argument falls apart.

'They should be commissioning a certain type of play, but I won't go and see it and it won't sell well.' How does that help?

I see this happen on "theatre twitter" all the time. People complaining about cast announcements for shows they never have any intention of seeing. If people want a more diverse theatre scene, they have to put their money where their mouth is and go out and support it in person, not just in a twitter thread where they can pat themselves on the back for being a tenuous participant.

Just read a 4* review on The Guardian.

I went today and left at the interval. Found it full of clichés and boring. I liked the main actor, who I thought might be a stand in for the writer, and I was right, he was the writer! Lots of navel gazing. Def not for me.

It’s mostly three stars from major publications (Evening Standard, WOS, The Stage, BroadwayWorld UK), four stars from The Guardian, two stars from The Times. It’s not Black Boys type of success but I guess it’s not that bad from a debut play by Danny Lee Wynter. I look forward for what he does next, as an actor and writer.

The Royal Court appears to be struggling to make bona fide smash hits the way the Almeida or Bridge do these days. There’s also @sohoplace which could turn out to be the more commercially viable option for future Almeida/Donmar/YV production transfers, or take on new productions (Brokeback is one), or the place for the new interpretations of classics (As You Like It and Medea are examples). The Dominic Cooke era of the Royal Court was the last “golden era” of the venue??

Am almost tempted now to try it for myself as I'm wondering if I'd stand a better chance of enjoying a play with mixed reviews and of which I have lower expectations than with recent productions at the RC which others' comments have persuaded me to see despite my initial instinct and which proved that I should have trusted my own judgement.

For instance, I loathed The Glow, escaped asap from the inexplicable and unintelligible Kylie Jenner and regretted enduring the baffling and seemingly interminable For Black Boys (etc) but quite enjoyed Rare Earth Mettle. The public and critics seemed to like or even love the first 3 but were more divided and less enthusiastic about the last.

Shame that if I do go, it will use up yet another scarce matinee slot due to the long running time - even if it was engaging, I'd risk falling asleep if I tried to sit thrugh something so long in the evening.