Three 16-year old, black South London youths, look for stability in their ever-changing urban landscape. The red football pitch they’ve known all their lives is under constant threat from redevelopers and as the responsibilities of adulthood beckon, each has to evaluate his place in the world and the group.Tyrell Williams won awards for this, his first play, and it is not difficult to understand why - given the rapid pace of astutely observed, character driven dialogue. Bilal, Omz and Joey (Kedar Williams-Stirling, Francis Lovehall and Emeka Sesay) playfully josh and cajole each other as they practise their ball skills and plan for their Lamborghini-filled futures. Try-outs for QPR loom large, but home-life and the ever present neighbourhood drilling and demolition, scaffolding erection and local shop closures, create a bleak and unsettling backdrop. Eventually one’s success causes a fracture in their comfortable interplay and the prospect of an imminent dissolution of their friendship causes tempers to boil over.
Considering the confined playing area of the Bush Theatre’s stage (with seating neatly ranged on four sides), Director Daniel Bailey (along with movement and fight directors Dickson Mbi and Kev McCurdy) has worked something of a miracle in the space. The trio of performers exhibit a dazzling array of ball skills and close proximity physical interplay which ensures that wherever audience members are seated they are closely positioned voyeurs to the action, which adds a frisson of jeopardy when tempers eventually flare.
Whilst the fight scene acts as a pivotal moment in proceedings, it is the smooth and familiar jocularity in the build-up which is the thing of beauty and joy to behold. Consequently, more than anything else, it is this element which stays in the mind and bodes well for Williams’ future writing endeavours.
