Sad: Death of England: Closing Time @ National Theatre, London
A lover of Roy Williams insightful and generous writing, as well as his ability to scrutinise contemporary British society, I was keen to attend his latest play Death of England: Closing Time. A two hander, all female play incorporating monologue, dialogue and some audience participation, written by Roy Williams and Clint Dyer, Denise (Sharon Duncan-Brewster) and Carley (Hayley Squires), unlike the other plays, have an awareness of their stageyness, audience and are more theatrical.
Exploring cancel culture, if an apology can ever be enough, what has to be done to merit forgiveness in the online world, racism, prejudice and hate, Denise and Carley embody walking-talking culture, ethnic, generation and mother-daughter-in-law (‘in sin’) clashes. As before, other characters are embodied by props and with clever lighting techniques and sound effects. The painful state of contemporary British culture is examined with scalpel precision…in Act 2.
Their family shop is closing down. Is it due to the Pandemic? Is it gentrification? Whose fault is it? The impact of the Pandemic and Brexit on small businesses is skirted around as a launchpad into other themes. Football murmurs in the background, less of an overarching theme here.
I’m sad to say it but the writing in Act 1 lets the production down. Prejudices and hateful attitudes are not examined closely enough — for example, a spew of hate is launched at the Royal Family during the recent Coronation and as an audience we’re invited to clap and cheer along with this. While this is Denise’s heart-felt opinion, the prejudice and deeper attitudes are not explored or examined, but allowed to stand as fact. It is Carley’s comment of how people are just trying, even the Royal Family, which enables Denise to feel wonderfully, beautifully, seen and heard. Overall it was much less nuanced than the previous two plays, with many Act 1 opinions being allowed to stand as ‘fact’, without exploring the constructs behind these personal truths. I felt like I’d watched a play about hateful opinions, rather than a play insightfully examining and exploring hate and prejudice.
Act 2 was completely different — again starting with hateful words and opinions, ending with Carley goes viral with her thoughts from a hen night, leading to massive repercussions on her relationships, her family, their family business, herself. Her apology becomes a heartfelt cry of self-pity, but doesn’t stop the cancelling, (topically a shop boycott). More could have been done here on the person behind the cancelling and what our current culture’s needs to pass judgement on everyone for all time says about us — and about them. From bickering and back biting, Carley and Denise end up standing alongside one another, together.
Stand out moments were Denise’s love for her granddaughter, being seen, respected and heard by Carley (in the Coronation family get-together debacle and in a disagreement in their shared shop) and in some tension; Carley and her Mum unexpectedly discussing her love for Delroy as her ‘Avalon’ (although we were invited to laugh at Roxy Music here); Carley’s fight against her Dad’s rampant racist views — and yet how he could embrace, idiosyncratically, Delroy; Carley’s pursuit of Delroy after they’d first met and the romance of their first kiss; Carley’s admiration of Denise, and in Denise’s grief at the loss of their livelihood. Moving too was Denise’s being with her friends as Carley’s words went viral and her reactions to their words.
A theme never explored here, though hinted at, was Denise’s dream of being a Sous Chef. She chucks her battered certificate and its frame around a few times, but we never hear her dreams fully. The dream is crushed, it’s suggested, due to Carley’s online unwanted publicity. But we never hear of Denise’s dreams beyond her love for her granddaughter and delight in having a queue of customers (unlike Carley) for her patties.
And that for me was the problem, we never fully got into the characters heads or hearts in this tragedy. Previously we’d seen the world through the eyes of others — Michael and Delroy. Here, although there was a lot of polemic, I felt we never really got into these characters lives in the same way. We saw and heard, rather than felt, the disappointment, grief, anger, hurt with their circumstances and with each other — perhaps in part, due to a more harsh and hate focused tone. Though focusing on the online war of words, we didn’t see enough of Denise or Carley, themselves. It also fell into cliche with Carley’s glamourous cocaine taking at a hen party. In a world where words (past and present) really seem to matter, what price do we pay for being wrong?
Overall I came away sad — for our society, our culture, the hate and alienation people feel for each other, that the writing was uneven and not as full as the previous two plays. Is this all we’re left with — to hate each other?
Terrific though were the barnstorming performances of Sharon Duncan-Brewster and Hayley Squires, especially Sharon Duncan-Brewster as she had taken over the role of Denise recently. They gave the fullness that the script lacked to these characters, suggesting backstory, past and engaging sweetly with the audience in broom holding or chatting to them. Staging-wise, due to bringing the women and props off-stage more, it made some parts hard to see unless you had a floorside seat.
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