Nick Gill’s abrasive, absurdist satire sets out to show that you can take bigots out of their own country but the bigotry goes with them wherever they go.
Played without an interval, it follows the Caucasian Jones family – dad James (a smug David Verrey) is an arms dealer, mum Jane a housewife - as they literally move their house from “one of the largest cities of Our Country” to “one of the largest cities of A Middle Eastern Country” where riots prove to be just around the corner.
Life, they agree, is good – though Jane feels threatened every time she sees a non-white face. Then their “eighteen year old sexually active schoolgirl” daughter, Jenny, brings the perceived threat right into their home – Kwesi, her new boyfriend, is black.
At least undergraduate John (Jamie Baughan) tries to show some moral fibre when his sister (Louise Collins’ provocative Jenny) attempts to seduce him, but it’s Kwesi (polite in the face of parental prejudice, rejecting premarital sex on religious grounds) who is actually the most civilized.
The deliberately cartoonish behaviour and mannered speech of the Jones family wears thin, though, and, having made his point, Gill rather loses his way in a production in which style comes to override content.
Finborough Theatre, Finborough Road, SW10 9ED (0844 847 1652) Tube: Earl’s Court finboroughtheatre.co.uk Until July 30 (£11-£15)
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