Seize The Day
Tricycle Theatre, London
Since 2008, few weeks have gone by without various newspapers parading a new Barack Obama to their readers. From obscure parts of Russia to London, black candidates have been anointed or cursed with the presidential epithet. So it was perhaps inevitable that this fascination and obsession would transfer itself into the artistic world. Kwame Kwei-Armah’s engaging Seize the Day is one of the first of these offering, telling the rise and fall of a black London mayoral candidate. It forms part of the Tricycle Theatre’s excellent “Not Black and White” season.
The possibility – which is not implausible, if you look at the runners and riders for 2012 – raises intriguing moral and cultural issues in the audience as realpolitik and society are explored on stage. James Charles, television celebrity and have-a-go-hero, is young, articulate and wholesome. His reputation is enhanced when he is caught on camera confronting a knife-wielding thug, Lavelle. And thus, his popularity soaring, he begins his journey into the political world.
Kobna Holdbrook-Smith puts in a fine and powerful performance as Charles that is only occasionally tarnished by obvious over-acting. But the character does not convince. The struggles between him and his advisors (Jaye Griffiths and Karl Collins) are too Manichean to be of significance. We are supposed to believe that this man is being groomed for an office with the greatest personal mandate in Britain. Charles’ political nature is too obvious and lacking in complicated dimensions. The moral questions of the man of integrity in the murky, compromising world of politics are age old and have been dealt with
many times before. Moreover, parts of the political dialogue seemed unoriginal, forced and undeveloped.
Fortunately, the play is not just a political piece and nor does it not hinge on actions. Instead these are explored through conversation. This choice is perhaps emphasised by Rosa Maggiora’s smart and effective staging: modern and minimal with a brave avoidance of detail. Video projections add to the cultural intelligence of the work.
Kwei-Armah’s direction of his own work sustains the pace with strong and active focus. The characters move around the stage to keep the play’s tempo quick and, in places, fiery. Kwei-Armah’s talents as a writer (as opposed to playwright) do show throughout the play. At times, the dialogue is at sharp and crisp, the arguments and confrontation precise and intelligent. There are depths here as one would expect from someone as passionate and clever as Kwei-Armah. I would just question whether – excellent writer as he is – he is a dramatist.
Where the play is strongest is its focus on the cultural baggage that would attach to such a candidacy (and did in last year’s American presidential race) and its unpacking of the hidden undercurrents in the interrelations of a multicultural society. The scenes between Charles and his wife (white) and his mistress (black) have real passion and force. His use as a tool and front for various organisations – each with their own motives – is also convincingly explored. And while Charles may be an uninteresting creation, Lavelle, to whom he acts as mentor, is not: engaging, quick and counterintuitive.
Smugly, we assume that race relations in this country are superior to those in, say, the United States or other parts of Europe. They are not. We tend not to talk about them. In spite of its naivety, this play goes some way in opening up the closed the doors and revealing what lies behind.
Graham Kirby
