Retrograde
Apollo Theatre, London
 

THIS fascinating play about actor and civil rights activist Sidney Poitier grips from start to finish.

Retrograde began life at the Kiln theatre in Kilburn, two years ago, prior to graduating on to the West End. Expertly directed by Amit Sharma, Ryan Calais Cameron’s sharp script is brought to life by some great performances from Ivanno Jeremiah (Sidney Poitier), Stanley Townsend (Mr Parks) and Oliver Johnstone (Bobby). The witty dialogue provides a great tempo to the essential plot, which revolves around temptation and betrayal.

Aged 28, Poitier is on the edge of making his acting breakthrough but in the fevered atmosphere of 1950s McCarthyite America, betrayal is required in order to make that leap. He must betray his friend Paul Robeson in order to prove himself a loyal American. The dilemma is nicely summarised with the biblical quote from Poitier as to “what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his soul.”

The play is particularly timely, given what is going on in America at the moment, the brutal condemnations and constant questioning of loyalty to the flag. Maybe, writer Ryan Calais Cameron could have slipped a make America great again into the flow of invective from NBC lawyer, Parks. Though that may have appeared a little too trite.

The three hander works well, with the constant to and fro, of the dynamic between Parks,  scriptwriter, Bobby and Poitier. Parks, the cynic, prepared to do anything for a comfortable life. He threatens Poitier as to how he will end up on the black blacklist if he doesn’t sign the loyalty oath and denounce Robeson. This means double condemnation for being black and a communist.

Liberal Bobby is as bad, if not worse, promoting his ideals and friendship with Poitier, but equally prepared to sell out to get on. And then there is the moral Poitier, not prepared to sell his soul, but Jeremiah superbly portrays his own struggle to do the right thing.

The whole play is set in the lawyer’s office, with characters entering and leaving intermittently, as the dilemmas come and go.

Retrograde is in many ways a tribute to one of the great civil rights activists and actors of our time. A truly moral man, who did the right thing. It is also a celebration of what was achieved by the civil rights movement over decades of struggle.

But the timeliness of the play today is in providing a reminder of how dark things can become when authoritarianism takes hold as it did with McCarthyism in 1950s America and how a similar thing seems to be happening now under Trump and his Magas. 

Runs till June 14. Box Office: 0330 333 4809, nimaxtheatres.com