Jeremy O. Harris’s Slave Play, at the Noel Coward Theatre on St Martin’s Lane, is an audacious exploration of the interplay of eroticism, desire and race. The play rips through standard clichés about black sexuality, and satirises the over-intellectualizing and generalising about how people of colour – any colour – feel and think.
The play was premiering off-Broadway in 2018 and later moving to Broadway, sparked intense discussions and debates, cementing its place as one of the most controversial and talked-about works in contemporary theater.
The play’s setting which we don’t realise at first (plot spoiler ahead) — is a workshop retreat for mixed race couples hoping to re-ignite their sexual passion. The therapeutic approach, antebellum sexual performance therapy, is the mastermind of two university researchers who humorously roll through their own psychobabble drivel theorising and generalising about their subjects narratives. Anyone who has attended a workshop will recognise the proforma language and attitudes of gratuitous facilitators.
Much is meant to jolt and shock- whether it is the free use of the N-word, a black dildo used as a sexual weapon, stereotypes of slave/master narratives being re-enacted, or the accusation of European settlers in America being a virus.
The acting is consistent throughout, with characters moving deftly between realities and revealing their own truths. Chalia La Tour and Irene Sofia Lucio as the two psychologist researchers are particularly amusing, and the sweet blond façade of Annie McNamara covers a more steely and humorous depth. Fisayo Akinade delivers a whopping diatribe honouring his own blackness.
With so much new and uncomfortable ground to cover, Harris creates a mash-up of theatrical styles — farce, comedy and pathos. At times the swift shift in styles can be confusing or a bit discordant. But in all, the play is a brave questioning of preconceptions and biases, and the ultimate triumphs of the individual’s own story – however interwoven with historical context that might be.
The three-act play runs without intermission. The set is made up of mirrored panels that reflect the audience and move to create new settings. The music ricochets from strange glockenspiel-type chimes to modern rap, helping underscore the incongruity of the storyline.
By Jeremy O. Harris
Director: Robert O’HaAkinade, Kit Harington, Aaron Heffernara
Cast includes: Fisayo Akinade and Olivia Washington are featured, alongside James Cusati-Moyer, Kit Harington, Aaron Heffernan, Chalia La Tour, Annie McNamara, and Irene Sofia Lucio
Running Time: 2 hours, no interval
Trigger Warnings: sexual content, simulated sexual violence, racially violent and discriminatory language.
Photo credit: Helen Murray.