★★★★☆
I’m not sure the title helps. How many people will be put off seeing this absorbing miniature because they assume it’s going to be another PC rant? Young Jean Lee’s acclaimed domestic drama — first seen in New York in 2014 — is much more a haunting study of our fear of failure.
It’s not without flaws. More or less a first act in search of a conclusion, its core is framed by a self-consciously camp display by two black performers, Kamari Roméo and Kim Tatum — dubbed “the persons in charge” — who act as MCs, pumping out rap music at the start. Perhaps the distancing device looked fresh before the deluge of sermonising pieces inspired by Black Lives Matter. Now it seems not a little smug.
Never mind. As the play proper begins, on Christmas Eve in a nondescript home, three sons are celebrating the holiday with Ed, their elderly widowed father. Jake is a banker who, in spite of his job and BMW, has a bullying, right-on world-view. Drew is an academic and novelist (don’t groan, he’s actually interesting), while the fortyish Matt has somehow slipped down the greasy pole. Although he went to Harvard, he has chosen to do undemanding voluntary work while living back at the family home.
At first they busy themselves with their seasonal rituals, including donning pyjamas. Jake and Drew seem to spend more time wrestling than actually talking to each other. But then, as they are eating a Chinese takeaway, Matt begins to cry. Sympathy flows at first, then turns icy. Has Matt chosen a noble, non-materialist path, or is he just a loser? And is dropping out just another expression of privilege?
The questions are left hanging in the air as we marvel at the extraordinarily subtle performances. As Matt, Charlie Condou is as careworn as the beaten-up family furniture. Alex Mugnaioni’s Jake is all barely suppressed venom, while Simon Haines (standing in for Cary Crankson) gives us a Drew who has found therapy and a nervy sort of contentment. As the patriarch, Simon Rouse looks on across the chasm of years. There is rare chemistry here.
To December 4; southwarkplayhouse.co.uk
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