Fola’s Top Shows of 2024
This year, I’ve had the pleasure of expanding my theatre horizons – from watching a show on Broadway to my first trip to Edinburgh Fringe Festival. My top shows of 2024 all toy with the norms of storytelling in innovative ways – experimenting with their narratives, playing with the limits of their forms, instilling freshness in the theatre-going experience. They have all stayed with me long after I saw them.
The Picture of Dorian Grey, Theatre Royal Haymarket
Following the success of Succession, Sarah Snook can be seen playing 26 characters in Kip Williams’s adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s cautionary tale. Undergoing several transformations onstage (as well as moving screens with pre-recorded snippets in which she plays certain characters), Snook shows us the full spectrum of London society in the late 1800s. Williams, along with Marg Horwell who helms the scenic and costume design, Nick Shleiper overseeing lighting and David Bergman the video design, builds an incredible ecosystem through which Snook can shine in this one-person show. This play operates at a constant high-speed, purposefully designed to feel like it’s on the edge of careening – but never actually going off the rails. In many ways, this is a cabaret show – rambunctious, subversive, and a ton of fun.
Is Dat U Yh, Brixton House
In his review for Medium, Jacob Antigha describes this as a ‘love letter to the naughties, South London, and Black-British culture’ – a succinct encapsulation on what this play offers its audience. Director and writer dkfash shows us what it is like being a young black girl growing up in South London, through the characters, collectively known as the “Back of the Bus Queens”. And even though that specific part of London isn’t where I grew up, the girls’ shared memories ring true in many ways. Set to a soundtrack of throwback hits, fashioned by Xana, this is deeply nostalgic. The cast, Adeola Yemitan, Antonia Layiwola, Zakiyyah Dean, and Rachael Ridley, are nimble and infectious with their energy. More than theatre, this is poetry that takes its audience on a trip down memory lane.
Death of England: Delroy, Soho Place
Last year, I had The Effect on last year’s list of my top shows. This year, I’m featuring yet another play that stars Paapa Essiedu. This time, it’s the Delroy installment in the Death of England Trilogy. The stage is Essiedu’s – over the course of the play, he captivates as the tragic hero, Delroy, a Black man whose unwavering love for a white girl finds him caught in the crosswires of her racist family. On top of this, he is also subject to harrowing police brutality. However, the writers, Clint Dyer (who also directs) and Roy Williams, take pains to remind us that, despite the clear-cut racism he endures, Delroy isn’t a saint. Rather, they imbue this character with incredible depth and fallibility. The staging, designed by Sadeysa Greenaway-Bailey and ULTZ, is simple but multifunctional, which allows for Esseidu to show us just how trapped he is, physically (with his ankle monitor) but mentally. Despite this, Essiedu expertly transcends the confines of the stage by putting on full display the pathos and humanity at the root of this man’s story. This is unabashedly my favorite monologue from the state-of-the-nation trilogy.
Black Arts UK 