The Tricycle’s Not Black & White season continues with Kwame Kwei-Armah’s latest state of the nation offering which tempers serious issues of race and integrity with lashings of comedy.
The US has a black president, so why shouldn’t London have a black mayor when it’s time to replace the current blond incumbent?
Kobna Holdbrook-Smith plays Jeremy, a personable TV presenter whose unscripted, on-screen, have-a-go encounter with a violent black youth costs him his job but brings him to the attention of Howard, the manipulative head of an unnamed organisation which is looking for a suitable candidate to front the next mayoral campaign.
Kwei-Armah’s characters are somewhat broadly drawn, but he can’t be accused of viewing them through rose-coloured spectacles and the scenario he envisages does few favours to anyone involved.
The apparently squeaky clean Jeremy has a black mistress as well as a white wife, and he’s fully aware - and prepared to take advantage - of the fact that he’s being groomed to appeal to voters of all colours in an increasingly multi-ethnic capital.
Still, since he doesn’t have a particular political stance of his own, it doesn’t take much persuasion from Howard (himself under investigation for suspect behaviour) and his sexy, smooth-talking colleague (Jaye Griffiths) to bend him to their cause.
Despite its somewhat clunky structure and haphazardly introduced plot strands, Kwei-Armah (who also directs) knows how to entertain. The behind the scenes machinations are fun to watch as the battle for occupancy of City Hall progresses, and though (through no fault of the actors) Jeremy’s mentoring of the teenager he decked (Aml Ameen) doesn’t convince, it serves to illustrate the differences of attitude between the generations and classes of black Londoners as the end of the noughties approaches.
Tricycle, Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR Kilburn Tube (020 7328 1000), in rep to 17th December (£10 - £20.00)
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