Black Superhero - Royal Court

Can I ask what is so "triggering" about the show?

She shouldn’t be making noises in the theatre. Distracting for the actors doing their jobs.

Relaxed performances cost a shed load of money because they are so sparsely attended, and require significant staffing. The lost financial opportunity is considerable - not too many customers prefer the lights up, the comings and goings, chatter, etc.

If you think Saturday afternoon is a bad idea, I can't think when might be a good idea. As you'll know, disabled people work, as well. A Saturday afternoon is the most generous allocation of resources I have ever known.

I should say, I’m not suggesting that disabled people are ‘badly behaved’ more that theatres might see that the needs of some disabled people are similar to the behavioural norms of other non-disabled people. So why not market ‘relaxed’ as something for all, rather than a special thing for disability inclusion?

I'm gobsmacked at the entitlement and self centred attitude of this person - she ought to have read what the play was about and avoided it, or she could have left if she felt triggered. Was she expecting everyone else to sit and endure her weird noises while attempting to enjoy the play?

I went with a friend on Thursday afternoon but we left at the interval, mainly because I was feeling ill but we might have stuck it out longer had it been a bit more compelling. 

Lewis Brown was doing a very good job of not having to rely on the script in his hand. I thought the other performances weren't anything that special.

It seemed like more of a series of conversations than a play. It was quite amusing but it felt like it had zero momentum. I know things were due to get more serious in the second act but I needed a lie-down. 

Saw this tonight. I have to say I loved the performances more than the play. The play feels to gimmicky and made to many references to popular culture for my liking.
Lewis Brown has achieved so much in taking on this role in such difficult circumstances. Tonight was his first night without the script, and he was fantastic. Likeable, with a beautiful vulnerability. Dyllon and Lewis had a raw chemistry that worked. I also loved Rochenda. But Dyllon was so desperately attractive that it gave the play a Hollywood feel.
I have to say the play didn’t feel lesser for not having DLW in the lead. What a shame Lewis didn’t get a decent press night and all the glory. Let’s hope this gives him a break he rightfully deserves.

I enjoyed this, certainly more than I expected given its difficult journey. I think the 3 to 4 star reviews it received from a lot of the press were about right and agree with luvvie23 that Lewis Brown did a great job. I was sorry that he wasn't slipped in the programme/playtext - if you missed the notice on the auditorium door, you wouldn't have known who was playing the role.

I thought the first 2/3s to 3/4s of the play worked pretty well with a number of laugh out loud moments and a beady eye on conversations actors have/competition between friends/blurred lines between friendship/sex, but it lost steamed towards the end (the childhood memories were less interesting to me and a late scene swerved into the joyless depiction of gay sex about which David had been complaining.) The direction was pacey and varied. The audience really stuck with the play and the cast looked very happy at the curtain call. Dyllon's wardrobe was very appealing. So a flawed evening, but it's a real play with some interesting ideas.

Allegedly, the issues stemmed from Wynter feeling a) the show wasn't ready, b) he wasn't supported in reworking elements of the show into its opening, that is to say the public run beyond previews, and c) that he didn't feel comfortable getting on a stage each night and performing a personal, self-penned work, while he believed others were making decisions in the *intent* that he'd fail.

Now, while I can sympathise with Wynter's situation and imagine the stress of having to deliver, in real-time, an artistic offering that you don't think is where it needs to be, night after night, the Court also has commitments to fulfil. Yes, as a venue, in many ways, their raison d'etre is the support of new writers, but I think Wynter's persecution complex (which manifests itself in accusations on social media of gaslighting, manipulation, people setting him up to fail and people not caring if he were dead - on an almost daily basis) isn't warranted in respect to the Court. The Court has been supportive of Wynter prior to this commission, as he as remained in the highly network fold of the Court for years before this, and more directly in the commission of this work itself. No one at the Court wanted this to fail. The Court's rep is hardly squeaky clean anecdotally within industry circles (some of its working practices are known to be sloppy), but this acrimonious split is atypical for them.

Do I think splits like this will be a recurring issue for the Court? No. Do I think Wynter's use of social media throughout this situation is ill-advised and that the weaponisation is unfair to a theatre that commissioned his first work? Yes. Is this the first time I've heard something about Wynter that I've not liked? No - the swipes he's made allegedly in industry talk at former costars who have found Stranger Things fame is unpleasant and his alleged obsession with belittling and demeaning people in his wrestling for power is nauseating. Is it the first time I've heard of him terminating a work relationship in this way? Yes. It's staggering.

It's not fair on the Court or the rest of the cast, in my opinion. Mental health breaks are necessary and completely valid. Exiting a production allegedly because the venue won't allow a hiatus to right the show as you see fit, and then overshadowing the rest of the run with the messy fallout of your exit isn't, in my opinion.

What an unholy mess - whatever the truth turns out to be. I seem to remember that there was a vaguely similar situation with Word-Play by Rabiah Hussain, with the production cancelled a week or so before it was due to open (and ultimately postponed for 10 months as it is now due to open in July 2023) - so if Danny Lee Wynter wanted more time or support to iron out any perceived problems with the play then what happened with Word-Play could have served as a confusing precedent. I don't know the ins and outs of either situation, but it sends a worrying message when two productions within a year have both struggled to open on time and without controversy.

I was not hugely aware of Danny Lee Wynter as an actor, but it seems he has managed to pivot from acting into activism and from there into a commission from the Royal Court to write his first play. I think there is something deeply problematic just in that sequencing. The Royal Court is one of the most feted theatres in the world for new writing, so if a first-time playwright can be given a commission there based on who they are and their activism then I see that as a troubling message to be sending to every other playwright. And this is the same theatre that decided to programme the debut play by their Head of Press and Publicity (My Mum's A Tw*t).

I think it's safe to say that the leadership at the Royal Court over the last decade has been all over the place. The rare critical and commercial successes seem almost entirely to have been airlifted into the building from elsewhere (Hangmen from the NT, The Ferryman from SFP, and Black Boys... from the New Diorama), and there have been major public fallouts over various political issues including claims of anti-semitism, and the flip-flopping over cancelling Rita, Sue and Bob Too over allegations made against Max Stafford-Clark. I was also told (anecdotally) that the only time in the last decade that the Royal Court turned a profit was during Covid when the theatre was essentially dark, and that following Jews (In Their Own Words) relations between those in charge and Caryl Churchill have got pretty unsavoury. The ideologies at play have had too heavy a hand on the tiller, and the Court has found itself in increasingly choppy waters. Taking the time and effort to find great plays and brilliant playwrights have almost seemed like an afterthought.

The next regime cannot arrive soon enough. The Royal Court needs needs to eschew the quick fix of playing to the gallery on social media and support the playwrights who are going to write the great plays of today and tomorrow that will play to the gallery, dress circle, and stalls of a full theatre.