Slave Play

Slave Play photos

Slave Play description

Slave play is described as iconic, controversial and ground-breaking, and it’s also the most Tony nominated play of all time. Now it’s on the way to the West End’s Noel Coward Theatre to inform, inspire, and shock audiences for a strictly limited run, an event to remember.

Welcome to Jeremy O. Harris’s extraordinary exploration of race, identity and sexuality in 21st century America, directed by Robert O’Hara.

Unwrapping the plot of Slave Play

This unique three-act play explores the experiences of three interracial couples who decide to try a new kind of therapy called Antebellum Sexual Performance Therapy. The couples’ role play involves recreating white/black, master/slave relationships in an effort to understand the way their own racial identities and histories are affecting their intimacy.

Part of the therapy takes place at the old MacGranger Plantation in Virginia, where everyone wears 1850s clothing. When the modern-day element of the therapy begins tensions rise along with questions around whether interracial relationships can work in today’s America, and how it feels to black in a relationship with a white person. Does slavery and racism still impact on the balance between people to this day? If so whose fault is it?

The resulting unflinching examination of sex, race, and power in today’s America contains very strong language and explicit adult themes, and the original cast reprises their roles. Fisayo Akinade, Kit Harington, Aaron Heffernan and Olivia Washington star alongside James Cusati-Moyer, Chalia La Tour, Annie McNamara, and Irene Sofia Lucio all starred in the original Broadway Production.

The creative team includes design by Clint Ramos, costume by Dede Ayite, lighting by Jiyoun Chang, and composition and sound design by Lindsay Jones.

A play with excellent credentials – The most Tony nominated work... ever

Harris wrote the play in his first year at the Yale School of Drama. It debuted in 2018 in an Off-Broadway New York Theatre Workshop with staging directed by Robert O'Hara, then opened on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre in 2019, nominated for a Best Play Lucille Lortel Award. At the same time Claire Warden won an Outstanding Fight Choreography Drama Desk Award for her work.

The play has attracted controversy ever since thanks to its themes and content, winning a legendary 12 nominations at the 74th Tony Awards, followed by a Broadway remount in 2021. Now it’s due in theatreland for summer 2024. The run sees a return to the play’s famous ‘Black Out’ nights where, for two performances, tickets will be exclusively for audience members who identify as black.

Expect an eye-opening, unforgettable, potentially life-changing experience that you’ll be thinking about for a long time to come.

Starring

Kit Harington

Playing at Noel Coward Theatre

85-88 St Martin's Lane, London, WC2N 4AU GB (venue info)

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