Death Of England: Closing Time

And so the trilogy ends (again). Closing Time, the final chapter in Clint Dyer and Roy Williams’ Death Of England series, brings to a head the stories revealed in Delroy and Michael with something of a bang.

This transfer from the venerable National Theatre to the West End’s newest major theatre is a statement of intent that, in this case, delivers. It is always a risky venture picking works which will be spread over time, even when the works are guaranteed hits: the ENO and the Met Opera’s recent plans to jointly fund and stage the Wagner Cycle fell apart when the former organisation had its budgets slashed and was told to leave London.

The previous chapters were both monologues telling the story of best mates with different views and backgrounds. While Michael (Thomas Coombes) was a white man who grew up with a racist father, Delroy (Pappa Essiedu) was a Black man with pro-Brexit views dating Michael’s sister Carly. It is now the turn of the women to speak as we meet Carly (Erin Doherty) and Delroy’s mother Denise (Sharon Duncan-Brewster). Together they set up a shop, a combined florist and Jamaican cafe. The story starts on the last day of their joint venture as they await in the premises someone to come along and pick up the key.

The staging is as it was for the previous plays, a giant St George Cross in the round with sunken areas in each quarter. This presents the usual challenges with some of what is said being totally inaudible. This isn’t helped by a nervy start where the dialogue is rolled at rapid pace, losing most of the nuance and more than a few of the words. When it does get going, though, there are some blistering exchanges between the pair as their recent past comes to the surface. Seeing their ambitions ground into the dust is no joy ride but, while their delivery is often at too high a volume to be fully appreciated, Doherty and Duncan-Brewster expose the dark humour in their situation thanks to some excellent writing from Dyer and Williams.

Death Of England stands as a polished diatribe on the state of this fractured nation with Closing Time providing arguments that, even in this current environment of hate and violence, there is hope that we all have more in common than those who would divide us like to pretend.

Death Of England: Closing Time continues until 28 September.

Photo credit: Helen Murray