Theatre Review: Young Rep Festival of Order and Chaos: Noughts and Crosses

Trigger warning: This article contains themes which are sensitive and may be upsetting

Noughts and Crosses, Young Rep Seniors 22nd July

Noughts and Crosses, Malorie Blackman’s best-selling novel on race and racism, comes to life in the hands of another brilliant group of actors. Set in present-day London but in an alternative history, Noughts and Crosses presents a version of society where black people are the ‘superior,’ dominant ‘Crosses’ race, whose violence and racist legislation keeps the ‘inferior’ Noughts race under control. Schools are segregated, with better education for Crosses, and white Nought terrorists are the subject of much media hatred. There are no Noughts in power; Crosses hold the economic, social and material power, while Noughts struggle in poverty and face extreme violence from law enforcement.

Against this backdrop of brutal social unrest, a young Cross girl named Sephy grows up with the son of her mother’s Nought maid as her friend. By their teenage years, Callum and Sephy are inseparable but their friendship is not only frowned upon, it is entirely forbidden. In Romeo and Juliet style secrecy, Callum and Sephy meet on the beach belonging to Sephy’s family. In the opening scene of the play Sephy is tutoring Callum to help him become one of the first white children to go to the black school which she herself attends. It will be considered impressive for him to be in her class, if he does achieve this, even though he is older: the Nought students are considered intellectually inferior. On their first day, replicating the horrific violence black students faced when schools were desegregated in the late twentieth century, the Nought students are met with shouting protests; there are spat at and treated as second-class citizens. Sephy’s attempts to befriend Callum in public alienate her further from her own peers and from Callum too.

Whilst this is an excellent cast, the young woman playing Sephy is in a league of her own

Whilst this is an excellent cast, the young woman playing Sephy is in a league of her own. She shines through the performance from start to finish, her talent absolutely unwavering. She commands the stage; she is expressive, confident and sensitive to everyone and everything around her. I was blown away by her way of speaking, her relations with the other characters and with the audience, and the way she gave voice to the realities of conflict, racism, and the effects of violence.

I did feel that the production itself was not always quite as succinct and well-paced as it could have been. There were older versions of Sephy and Callum, for example, who spoke over scenes to give more information and to provide insight into the characters’ minds, but these were unnecessary and a better production would have cut them. The existing actors on stage did an adept job of portraying the characters’ internal feelings, so these additional descriptions weren’t needed. There was also an absolutely unwavering loyalty to every last detail of the book, which – although it was lovely for someone like myself who loves the book – made for a very long play and it definitely could have done with better editing. However, it is important to stress that this is a criticism of the production and not the Young Rep Seniors, who were brilliant to watch and are a credit to themselves.

the Young Rep Seniors…were brilliant to watch and are a credit to themselves

They did especially well in acting as the children and adults of this play, in a cast of only children – contrary to The Trials. The young man playing Sephy’s father, deputy Prime Minister Kamal Hadley, completely embodied the disgruntled, powerful politician who fakes an interest in racial minorities and makes career advancements for himself and himself only. His delivery during scenes with news readers and journalists was both funny and quietly reflective of the problems we have with our own self-centred sea of politicians in Westminster, and I admired his knowledge, both in speech and body language, of what this looks like.

Despite the issues with the pace and length of the production, this was another accomplished and vivid performance from Birmingham’s young actors

Callum’s family, steeped in poverty and disillusioned by decades of violence and racism, were a great mirror to the effects of racist society. The desperation of Callum’s father and older brother Jude were played out as they are in the book: namely as a case study of what deep-seated hatred and no place for protest does to men on the fringes of society. Their story and its shattering, devastating conclusion made for excellent theatre.

Despite the issues with the pace and length of the production, this was another accomplished and vivid performance from Birmingham’s young actors.