An Octoroon (Orange Tree Theatre)

I am going and recall at least one other poster saying s/he was, so nearer the time I expect someone would have started a thread. But thank you for doing so, dave72. I did see the theatre's tweet about casting but didn't bother to check, as it makes no difference to my attendance - and in fact, given some of the OT's recent casting/direction, I'd rather not know until I have to.

Crumbs, estimated running time is currently 2 hours 25 - why did I not stick to my usual practice of booking only matinees at this venue?!

Seeing this in a few weeks.

The box office were lovely and helpful when I phoned up and wanted to return 1 ticket and swap another for a different date.

The US reviews were indeed excellent and precisely why I booked with such hope and expectation. However, this is a different production; also, I think I saw the first preview so at the least it will probably speed up - as I think it needs to.

Fundamentally though, I think the subject and treatment are just not for me - but then, I also saw, and failed to "get" the film Dear White People, which I've seen mentioned in connection with this. I sat through that film baffled by what it was meant to be saying and how it could have attracted such praise so maybe it was deja vu last night.

It's a wild, hilarious, challenging, completely unpredictable play. Somebody described it as Uncle Tom's Cabin as rewritten by the Marx Brothers, and I think that's just about right. In my view, one of the most exciting plays of the last decade. But yes, much depends on the production, which I haven't (yet) seen--the New York production set a very high standard.

Ha! It was purposefully bizarre and provocative. It was different, but i cant say it was boring.

I think there will be a LOT of confused punters for this if they go by the play description on the website. It makes it sound like a wacky costume drama, when its more of a art house, agent provacateur piece

Its not a million miles away from that mr burns play that was at the almeida a couple of years ago

Ill also say the youngsters in the audience really liked it. And a lot of the old people left in the interval.

Saw the Saturday matinee and absolutely loved this. A brilliantly challenging, ever playful, hysterically melodramatic take on racism and the South, with a snarling bite.

Some spoilers follow. . .

This is SO Tim Crouch. Everything that the Royal Court's "Adler and Gibb" did for "fake news" and narcissism , this does for race and the South.

For those who didn't see "Adler and Gibb," the characters began as unclothed actors and put on their characters by degrees throughout the play. Denise Gough went from an automaton to a female Donald Trump who would do ANYTHING for acclaim. The play ended with a movie version, of the events we witnessed over the course of the play, that was "FAKE NEWS" in every respect, but which seemed more real than "the reality" we had witnessed.

In hindsight, this was one of the most insightful plays I've ever seen. Unfortunately, those insights were contained in a format that turned off far too many punters.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' play reinvents Crouch's format, but keeps things on an entertaining keel throughout. He retains the concept of unclothed actors dressing up as their characters, which here includes the methodical application of white face, black face and red face on the actors, he includes an ongoing Brechtian critique of the storyline we are witnessing, and he even builds up to an audiovisual revelation towards the end, that serves as capper and commentary, just as Crouch did.

But what Jacobs-Jenkins also does is exchange some of Crouch's seriousness for (apparently) childish playfulness, which means this show is far less likely to alienate audiences. Also, by adapting a known work by a seriously successful 19th century playwright, Dion Boucicault (author of the National's "London Assurance" which starred Simon Russell Beale), he guarantees himself a dramatic frame which works to entertain in it's own right, even as he hilariously upends and twists it, like playdough, as we go along.

And where Crouch used grim reality to deconstruct fake news, Jacobs-Jenkins effectively does the reverse, using fake news (Boucicault's "the Octaroon") to deconstruct real news. When the real news hit, towards the end of the piece, I felt so punched in the gut, I couldn't concentrate on the actual ending of the play, which became a mere epilogue, in my experience.

Anyway, this is a terrific work, and Ken Nwosu was thrilling in multiple roles, playing both the protagonist and antagonist of Boucicault's play, but also playing Branden Jacobs-Jenkins himself, provocatively and teasingly self-identified as a "black playwright." Nwosu flips effortlessly from one character to the other, and as he moves in and out of various realities, certain scenes play both comically and seriously simultaneously, depending on who an audience member is imagining they are watching at any time: Boucicalt's characters, Jacobs-Jenkins or Ken Nwosu!?

There are also some wonderful supporting performances, with Emmanuela Cole's actress/slave Dido compelling and warm, Celeste Dodwell's Dora barkingly and deliberately OTT, Kevin Trainor's Boucicalt alternately gentle and fierce, and Alistair Toovey's blackface characters unnerving, provocative and funny.

This is a terrific play, superbly performed in an intimate space. There is so much to process and so much to muse on. And also, so much that amuses, even, and perhaps especially, in observing other audience members. At one point, as Nwosu's Branden Jacobs-Jenkins puts on white face, Snoop Dogg's horrible sexist and racist chant "Step Yo Game Up" comes on with it's refrains, about what "bitches" must do to "niggas," to a thundering bass, and one old lady's face assumed a silent scream, while another old lady starting tapping her foot with the pounding beat in evident pleasure.

There is just too much to see here to miss this!

4 and a half stars

I'm not a great fan of post modernist takes on old plays but this really works. No-one in this day and age would want to see Boucicault's "the Octaroon" but BJJ's deconstruction makes for a clever, engaging and highly original evening. I was really impressed by the whole cast, in particular their interaction with the audience including three elderly ladies gripped by the story and one poor man fast asleep after only 10 minutes. I agree, Ken Nwosu was a real standout.

Is it still coming in at 2hr 30?

It's going to be Jerusalem all over again, isn't it? I'll be the only member who hated what I did see & couldn't escape fast enough. That said, maybe those who have enjoyed it would be less keen on the traditional Orange Tree fare - as it was, anyway.