For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy - ★★★★★

One of unspoken tenets of theatre criticism is that you review the show, not the audience. And here at The Recs we have a guideline that we try and avoid writing in the first person – that’s for bloggers, not reviewers. Thanks to the extraordinary nature of Ryan Calais Cameron’s game-changing For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy we have to break both rules.

There is nothing like For Black Boys… in the West End. It has arrived at the Apollo Theatre with an unmistakable buzz, having premiered in 2011 at the New Diorama Theatre and sold out a 5-week run at Royal Court. It feels like something momentous – like a glass ceiling has been shattered. The voice of black British writers is no longer restricted to Fringe or off-West End. Kudos to Nica Burns, head of Nimax Theatres, for recognising the vitality and originality of Ryan Calais Cameron’s writing and giving it the platform it deserves.

The show opens with six male figures performing a movement piece – each interconnecting in slow motion with each other, the shape of them always changing, sometimes with arms reaching out, before Nnabiko Ejimofor breaks off for a solo infused with street dance and popping as well as expressive contemporary. The striking shapes hint at one of the plays themes: that blackness or masculinity can never be pinned down as one thing.

For Black Boys… was inspired to be something of a male companion piece to for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, Ntozake Shange’s acclaimed theatre work from 1976. That earlier work told the stories of seven women who experienced oppression in a sexist and racist society. Here we find six black men in a group therapy setting where they open up about their personal experiences of growing up as black and male and the forces that have shaped their lives – whether that be family, peers, society or history.

As each of the six take turns telling their stories, the others instantly embody the characters in that narrative – sometimes comically, sometimes more ominously. We begin to get to know the different personalities of the six – each of them unique, with their own upbringing and nurturing moulding them into the man we see.

Writer Cameron has such a skill to make dialogue sound real and honest and each of the six incredibly-talented performers delivers the authenticity of his writing with such deftness and warmth. One of his skills as a playwright is his ability to find lightness in the heaviest of issues. A discussion of how young black men are much more likely than white men of their age to be subjected to stop and search by the police (the current figures are nine times more likely) is preceded by the cops’ pose being transformed into that of the Power Rangers. In a brilliant piece of barbed humour in response to the question surely the police need to stop and search to find criminals comes the cutting response ‘Do firefighters drive around around looking for fires?’.

Contentious issues are explored unflinchingly with differing positions held by members of the group. “What has black history week ever done to empower anyone” is one such lively debate. Even more polarising, as characters take up opposing positions on the use of the N-word, it had the audience bursting into spontaneous applause, such was their level of engagement as the writing intersected with their lives. For black people sitting in the audience, For Black Boys was a window into their lived lives. For white audience members, For Black Boys had eye-opening detail of quotidian ‘caucacity’ that we often fail to recognise or appreciate.

The triumph of Cameron’s writing is that it shares so many issues that are alive and important, it tells stories that talk directly about lives being lived in 2023 and it does so in a powerful and positive way. Despite the seriousness of issues being raised, laugh-out-loud comedy is never far away. At times the audience roaring with laughter in recognition makes it feel like a standup gig. A banging soundtrack and spontaneous dance routine keep the energy up without ever undermining the deeper themes.

The six cast members – Nnabiko Ejimofor, Darragh Hand, Emmanuel Akwafo, Aruna Jalloh, Mark Akintimehin and Kaine Lawrence – deliver all that is asked of them by their director (also Ryan Calais Cameron) whether slick moves, sizzling banter and one-upmanship between them or heartbreaking tales that are devoid of histrionics. They exude commitment to the storytelling and a deep and impassioned understanding that these voices must be heard.

At the interval, while queueing at the bar, amongst the buzz and the animated chatter, a man in front of us said with a genuine sense of surprise “I feel seen”. There cannot be higher praise of new writing that that.

For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy is an important, exuberant rollercoaster ride of emotions and insight. This is Theatre that connects with an audience like no other show that we can remember. It alters the landscape of the West End for the better and manages somehow to be a thrilling, optimistic, emotional, entertaining night in the process!