Noughts And Crosses Review

Brighton Theatre Royal – until 25 February 2023

Reviewed by Sue Bradley

4****

Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman’s hugely successful novel for young adults, has been adapted for the stage by Sabrina Mahfouz.

Set in a dystopian version of Britain, with a have/have-not split society, one faction is privileged and wealthy, the other is resentful and down-trodden. There might be a temptation to think this will simply be a story about class or racism but this production wrong-foots us from the beginning and the actors, playing against racial stereotyping, quickly disabuse us of simple analyses.

This is more a version of the star-crossed lovers theme we have seen throughout literary history. Young people experiencing love, perhaps for the first time, against a backdrop of a world that presents enormous challenges to that love. There is much that is tragic in this particular story but it is not just a re-tread of Romeo And Juliet.

The two young lovers, Sephy and Callum, played by Effie Ansah (The Maladies, Almeida Theatre) and James Arden in their first leading roles are engagingly adolescent – full of life, love and confusion and there is much to sympathise with as they negotiate their relationships with their respective families and each other.

Because this is conceived as a young adult story, rather than a story for the older and perhaps more world-weary, some of the plot devices are a bit simplistic. But it should taken as a testimony to the story-telling that the large number of people in the audience of a similar age to our lovers were remarkably silent throughout the very long first act – no rustling of crisp packets, no idle whispering. The whole cast kept the story unfolding at just the right pace to keep younger minds fully engaged.

Many productions make a point of having the audience come in to see a lavish set. This show had their (apparently) minimalist set on show from the start but with an ingenious combination of segmentation of the set and clever lighting and projection, the set came alive and the changes really helped to create a different tone for each scene. A word of appreciation, also, for the sound design which is subtle and effective.

If you are an adult with some life experience behind you, you are unlikely to see something you have never seen before in this play, but it is not heavy-handed in its point-making and, for young adults there is much to relate to and perhaps to talk about afterwards. And, after all, that is what we all want great theatre to do; give us something significant to talk about.