FOR RYAN Calais Cameron, seeing the words “‘For Black Boys…’ in bright lights in the centre of Sloane Square.’ when his production kicks off in March will be a ‘landmark.’
Last modified on Thu 25 Feb 2021 06.21 EST
Christopher Alderâs last moments, in April 1998, were unforgivably brutal. Injured in a fight at a nightclub, he took his final breath in police custody. It was an abject death: an unlawful killing that, for his campaigners, represented another instance of a black British man dying in a senseless way.
Yet what is marked about Ryan Calais Cameronâs astounding play, written in rap-like rhyming verse and tracing the minutiae of its unnamed characterâs final day, is that it bursts with life, zest, humour and hedonism even as it hurtles towards tragedy.
First staged as a solo show in 2019 and now created by Nouveau Riche and Soho theatre for a screen version, it becomes a perfect, if eviscerating, nugget of dramatic performance in its new medium; theatrical in setting but also sharply focused and dreadful in its filmic intimacy. When the violence comes, the camera seems to throw the punches. In a claustrophobic closeup, it tight