The complexity of race and identity: Steve John Shepherd as the troubled Paul Ryman. Photo credit: Richard Davenport
Play: Albion
Theatre: Bush Theatre
Playwright: Chris Thompson
Director: Ria Parry
Review by Natalie Gormally
Chris Thompson’s explosive new play examines the turbulent rise of the new far-right in modern day Britain.
Thompson takes English nationalism and combines it with a steady stream of well-known karaoke tunes as a narrative vehicle. It’s an unusual approach for a theatre piece, but it works surprisingly well with comedy and tension rubbing shoulders in this uncomfortable and thought-provoking production.
We start off at The Albion pub on a Saturday night, where there is karaoke five nights a week. Paul Ryman (TV veteran Steve John Shepherd) is the landlord of this East End boozer, leader of the English Protection Army (EPA) and an angry man. Paul uses The Albion as the base for his “meet and greet” nights to boost membership for the EPA.
His younger brother Jayson (Tony Clay) is a karaoke enthusiast and runs the pub’s entertainment sideline. Despite being gay with an Asian boyfriend Aashir (Dharmesh Patel), Jayson is an EPA member. With Kyle (Delroy Atkinson) as the party’s black deputy leader, the complexity behind contemporary white fascist groups and their approach to diversity is more than hinted at.
During one of Paul’s EPA gatherings he breaks down. He is consumed with a sense of unfairness at a system which, he believes, favours one community over another, and his grief over the brutal killing of his soldier sister Poppy, while serving in Afghanistan.
Enter Christine (Natalie Casey), a social worker who has been sacked and made into a scapegoat in a case resembling the recent Rotherham child abuse story (where the victims were predominantly white girls and the perpetrators Asian men). Like Jayson, she wants to belong and be heard.
After a run in with BBC News during a violent EPA demonstration, Paul decides to shake off the group’s thuggish image and appeal more to the masses. Christine becomes his new spin-doctor and turns Paul’s views into palatable soundbites.
Thompson uses his characters to illustrate that the EPA isn’t preoccupied with race, but with culture and immigration. Meanwhile Jayson’s reason for being a member is more to do with belonging to something and maintaining a relationship with his brother, rather than anything fundamentally political.
Throughout the play, the tension rises and explodes in the final act where the veneer of respectability is lifted and polished soundbites give way to coarser, nastier dialogue, a reminder of the early British National Party days.
Thompson’s script is very current. The EPA is reminiscent of the English Defence League, whose founder also tried to distance himself from its more thuggish media unfriendly elements. Christine’s Best of British TV cooking channel is clearly a dig at the former BNP leader’s internet show “Cooking with Nick Griffin”.
The Albion could almost be billed as a musical with its wide range of popular tunes tucked between scenes, helping to position the characters and dialogue. While this is entertaining viewing, by the end of the play it starts to dilute the content and reduce the emotional impact overall.
As for the performances, Natalie Casey is excellent at playing the business-like Christine, while Steve John Shepherd switches from scary to empathetic in seconds. They have strong support from Tony Clay as Jayson, who is torn between his love for his brother and his relationship with Aashir, with karaoke as his only means of escape.
James Button’s set design transports us to an authentic boozer, with the St George’s flag, pool table and plasma screens showing Sky Sports.
Ria Parry’s direction packs plenty of punch, particularly the first half which is fast paced and energetic. However, at over two hours long, maintaining this tempo is difficult.
Albion is current and provocative. Thompson shows that it is all too easy to dismiss racist views as nonsense, and that ignoring them is no longer an option.
Albion is at the Bush Theatre until Saturday 25 October 2014.