A slick and fast-paced set-to between two women
Closing Time is the final instalment of Death of England, Clint Dyer and Roy Williams’ state-of-the-post-Brexit-divided-nation trilogy, writes Mary Bradshaw.
White, working-class Carly and her black mother-in-law, Denise, will argue from the rubble of their failed joint business venture (a florist and a West Indian Café), before they hand over the keys to their shared premises.
The in-the-round stage starts to feel less like its more obvious image of the England flag, and much more like a boxing ring as the pair hurl accusations and comebacks at each other at full volume and breakneck speed. The question of whether their interracial alliance is broken forever looms large throughout the play, and the absence of ‘their man’ Delroy – Denise’s son and Carly’s partner, who seems to care more about football than about the women in his life – is palpable.
Sifting through the detritus of the two previous plays, Closing Time can work as a standalone piece for newcomers to the trilogy, as the story is partly told through flashbacks to significant events. This method gives Sharon Duncan-Brewster (Denise) and Erin Doherty (Carly) the chance to dazzle us with their nano-second character switches as they reenact past conversations. Sudden, dramatic sound and fight-night lighting is used in these moments, but it feels over-the-top and superfluous. The acting can speak for itself.
Amid a peppering of social and political references – overpriced bakery chain Gail’s, Liz Truss, Covid jabs – broader themes emerge, such as the white appropriation of black culture, vacuous virtue signalling, the true meaning of woke, and of tainted reputations (self-inflicted or inherited).
Denise grapples with whether white people and black people can ever truly live and work alongside each other or share experiences and culture – any inherited racist vitriol aside, of course. She points out that despite everything, Carly ‘knew us, but wasn’t us… still didn’t know enough.’
This question will crop up again and again. Sometimes playfully, like when Duncan-Brewster translates pears as ‘that’s avocados to you’ for a white audience member. And there will be no clear answer. The closest we might get is a taste-of-your-own-medicine lesson. For Carly, at least. And a message for the audience to remember.
Carly will realise that even her deepest bottom-of-my-heart apologies and her most heartfelt protestations will never be enough to restore her reputation and repair the damage she has done (through a vital mistake – the crux of the plot). Denise will tell her: ‘Welcome to the world of black.’ Welcome to the world where the general assumption, everywhere, is that you ‘come from s****’. Where you have to prove yourself and your worth over and over again, day after day. Where you are ‘always feeling about being black.’
This final episode of Death of England is a slick and fast-paced set-to between two women whose dreams are over. It is a little too fast in places and often obstructed by some heavy-handed sound and lighting. The humour works well overall – and gets the audience laughing at themselves and at each other – but it risks over-softening the emotional punches of the more tender moments between Carly and Denise.
Doherty and Duncan-Brewster’s impressive acting and the delicate, difficult questions raised by the script make the play well worth watching.
The trilogy runs until 28 September. Soho Place Theatre, 4 Soho Place, Charing Cross Road, W1D 3BG.
Booking here
