ajhlovestheatre

BLACK SUPERHERO

by Danny Lee Wynter

directed by Daniel Evans

Royal Court Theatre – until 29 April 2023

https://royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/black-superhero/

As debut plays go, Danny Lee Wynter’s Black Superhero is a pretty terrific achievement. A mouthy, sexy, vital thunderclap of a play, it’s a funny, frank dissemination and examination of Black identity versus, and in entanglement with, queer lifestyles, of familial ties, the fragility of relationships, polyamory…and hero worship. It feels authentic and personal but also universal, and although there’s a lot going on here, Wynter displays a masterly gift for keeping his thematic plates spinning. Plus he creates bold, interesting characters, snappy, unforced dialogue that switches from witty to heartfelt to raunchy in the blink of an eye, and marbles an already rich cake with a layer of magic realism that proves surprisingly potent.

At the beginning of the Royal Court run, Wynter himself was playing disaffected David, a sort-of Black gay everyman, an unemployed actor living in his sisters spare room and in sexual and romantic thrall to friend-with-benefits King (Dyllón Burnside, one of the breakout stars from TV’s Pose). The role is now played by Lewis Brown and, while it’s disappointing not to see a playwright perform their own work, Brown is absolutely tremendous. He captures exactly David’s multiple but entirely credible traits: the relatability, the sensitivity, the emotional availability to friends and families but not necessarily to lovers, the deep well of damage (including the ongoing management of substance use) caused by a brutalised childhood, the keen intelligence and political awareness that sees him unable to resist a turn on the soapbox even when it’s not the time or the place, the humour…. Brown inhabits this flawed, lovable human with compassion and consummate stage craft.

Burnside makes King, the Hollywood star with a newly opened-up marriage and a libido bigger than a whole herd of elephants in the room, an appealing, elusive figure. As charismatic as he is physically beautiful, he comes across as the sort of gorgeous steel-cored hedonist who breezes through life blithely unaware of the trail of emotional destruction they leave in their wake. Wynter also has King appear as Craw, a caped, masked superhero who’s both his best known film role and, in David’s fevered minds-eye, his alter ego. It’s an imaginative touch that, while fun, doesn’t feel fully integrated into the rest of the script and runs the risk of making an unknowable figure feel even more removed from the rest of the characters and action.

Daniel Evans’s production, played out in a dark, angular, neon-edged space (scenic design by Joanna Scotcher, lit by Ryan Day) that multitasks effectively as night club, hotel suite, Essex beach and the outer reaches of David’s imagination, mines the text for all it’s confrontational satire, outrageous humour and moments of authentic distress. It’s also studded with excellent supporting performances.

Eloka Ivo is sharp and funny as pragmatic Raheem, David’s successful actor friend whose ideals and opinions re race and sexuality are a moveable feast depending on how they affect him (“bein black shouldn’t enslave me to being a role model”) and Ben Allen does nuanced but hilarious work as King’s amiably crass Caucasian travel writer husband (“I felt very white when I visited the Congo, actually”) and a provocative Australian interviewer. Rochenda Sandall is a total knockout as Syd, David’s feisty sister, a straight-talking children’s party entertainer with an athletic sex life, a very clear-eyed take on her sibling, and, despite being straight, a pretty astute grasp on gay sexual politics: “spend a lifetime fightin for what we’ve got, finally go and get it, then realise all they wanted was what they had to begin with. No marriage and loadsa cock!” The wondrous Sandall, in tandem with Wynter’s cracking writing, turns Syd into the kind of woman you wouldn’t want to mess with, but would love to have as a friend.

One of the great strengths of Wynter’s script is his ability to present opposing viewpoints with equal conviction while seldom reducing his characters to mere mouthpieces. The result is a series of timely, engrossing debates that never lose sight of the humanity of the principal figures, shot through with rambunctious humour and shards of irresistible theatricality, in Evans’s flashy but sensitive staging. There are shades of Jonathan Harvey, Tony Kushner, Michael R Jackson and Jeremy O Harris here, yet Black Superhero is it’s own fabulous beast. Lovely, naughty, essential stuff.