By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Saturday 13 July 2024, opening 18 July and booking until 14 September 2024 RUNTIME: 170 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Actress/screenwriter/director Katori Hall was inspired to write this comedy drama about black gay men for which she won a Pulitzer Prize because she wanted to reflect her brother’s life experiences.

• Read on for reasons including how this a play that might present a challenge but is definitely worth consuming enthusiastically

At 1st it appears a fairly light dish as we join Kadiff Kirwan’s (Queers, Old Vic and TV’s Slow Horses) Cordell as he prepares spicy hot chicken wings for a culinary competition with his very funny friends Isom, played by Olisa Odele (Channel 4’s Big Boys), and Jason Barnett as Big Charles.

This is a slow burn and it’s not until Cordell’s partner Dwayne, played by Simon-Anthony Rhoden, returns home from work and they kiss that we realise their sexuality. Isom and Big Charles also spar with affection and they appear to be in a less committed, on-off relationship.

It’s rare to see gay characters so at the heart of a drama, let alone black gay characters, and things turn more serious with the arrival of Dwayne’s nephew EJ, Kaireece Denton making a fine professional theatre debut, and his shady father TJ.

It’s shortly before the two-year anniversary of Dwayne’s sister’s death and how those remaining in the aftermath of it deal with it is very much where the drama in this piece springs from.

Kirwan gives a great central performance here as the outwardly muscular yet inwardly manchild who is desperate to triumph in Memphis’ Hot Wang Festival and at times you can’t take your eyes off him as his relationship unravels.

Not a great deal happens but we loved the way in which a recipe mishap led to a challenge to Dwane Walcott’s swaggering TJ that finally breaks down the barriers between all the men here.

This is both occasionally very funny and very moving and Odele and Barnett deserve great credit for lightening the mood when things occasionally do become very dark.

There’s also some great musical moments not least a cast singalong to classic Luther Vandross which does give a sense of how old they are as well as how musically proficient they are too.

It might take a little while for one’s ear to attune to the language but this production is fully deserving of its standing ovation at its close and it’s exactly the sort of play that might present a challenge but is definitely worth consuming enthusiastically.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy National Theatre Tickets
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