Retrograde, Kiln Theatre

Hollywood royalty. Impeccable gentleman. Talented actor and director fighting stereotypes, tropes and racism in Hollywood and promoting better parts for actors of colour. These are all the things I think of when I consider Sidney Poitier’s career and these are among the topics of Ryan Calais Cameron’s new play at the Kiln Theatre.

Much like James Graham, he’s taken real life incidents and created a what if scenario play. Whilst it could have been more tense at points, really drawing you in, the playwright is a young playwright learning their craft and this is still an excellent work with a lot to admire and enjoy.

A contract is going to be signed turning Sidney Poitier (stage and film actor) into a major movie star. However one of the men in the room has a hidden agenda. Sidney’s promoter and friend is going to be forced into hard and uncomfortable compromises against his client and friend. Sidney is going to be forced into choosing to betray friends and comrades (and perhaps himself).

Mr Parks (Daniel Lapaine) repeatedly pushes Poitier’s buttons — not letting him speak for himself, extending what should be a straightforward meeting into something quite time consuming (and marriage damaging — as his wife is cooking lunch!) insulting his masculinity, his classiness, his dignity and his integrity (for he is denied the water he wants on a hot day and cajoled into early morning drinking, cos we’re all guys together, right?) Cringingly dropping into youth (or perhaps assumed black street talk), Mr Parks wants Poitier to prove himself and manipulates Bobby (Ian Bonar) into setting up what could be a life changing meeting.

Ivanno Jeremiah is impeccable as Sidney Poitier, charming, debonair, immaculate and someone determined to create roles where he is seen as just as a man. We’ve already eavesdropped on Parks moral panic at Poitier’s challenging of assumed American cultural norms as the world prepares to explode into the civil rights battle. But it is the 1950s here, so there is perhaps too much hindsight going on here as it feels like we’re in early 1960s Mad Men territory. Along with a bit of flabbiness in the script at points which could be super tense, the unclear setting could be sharpened.

Sidney has to entertain with a pleasing story, about learning to act (having never acted before) and with a strong Caribbean accent, which he has now sadly lost for mid-Atlantic RP (so beloved of the time). Poitier loathes the assumption that he is just a floor cleaner and so determines to prove that he is just a man and can be an actor. (He never said what his occupation was when he hit the stage). There is also an acidic twist in the tale — before he gets to sign his movie contract, Mr Parks wants him to sell his soul — proving that he is not a secret Red by naming and shaming his friend Paul Robeson in public and signing up to the anti-Communist agenda of the time.

In a heart-rending moment, Bobby and Sidney both weep as they realise what he needs to do. Sidney has already walked out, but feels forced to return to avoid losing his career opportunity and the opportunities to lift up people of colour on screen. But it doesn’t end as we think it will, and if you don’t whoop at Sidney’s triumph as I did at one point, then you’ve missed the moment!

All the parts are played really well in this three hander play — Mr Parks is a bit cookie cutter bad white man, shouting intimidatingly at Sidney at points. It’s to Daniel Lapaine’s credit that he makes such a one sided figure believable and somewhat nuanced. The scenes between Bobby and Sidney are tenderly drawn as they face conflict in their own relationship and confront the ethical dilemma (and career damage) Sidney is being pushed into. Yet it ends with a beautiful touch of polite manners — you can burn with hand shakes after all, and forgiving restoration through action, when Sidney invites Bobby to take the train with him.

As with For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy, the play is imaginatively and stirringly written and really engaging with lots of energy throughout.