Cherelle Skeete (left) and Suzette Llewellyn in The Fellowship
(Picture: © Robert Day)Veteran playwright Roy Williams’ latest work at Hampstead Theatre is a three-generational family drama, ambitiously tackling the complexities of Black British identity and sisterhood.
Representing the Windrush generation is the dying, elderly mum never seen on stage but who was narrowly saved from deportation only because her family was fortunate enough to find her papers. Then there are her chalk-and-cheese daughters Marcia (Suzette Llewellyn) and Dawn (Cherrelle Skeete, in a last-minute cast change), and Dawn’s lazy but charming partner Tony (Trevor Laird). Making up the third generation are Dawn’s teenage son Jermaine (Ethan Hazzard) and his white girlfriend Simone (Rosie Day), who is seemingly leading him astray.
The drama unfurls in Dawn’s lounge, a modern, minimalist, IKEA-ey space backed by a sweeping spiral staircase (designed by Libby Watson) and framed by two blue ring lights representing Dawn’s Alexa home assistant, which is frequently instructed to blast out “Dawn’s kitchen playlist” (an array of “white” Eighties bangers) for living room dance parties with Marcia.
That the script looks across three generations invites meaningful questions about inherited trauma and what we hand down to those who come next, and it does so through heartfelt humour and big family conflicts. With each generation comes a shift in identity and attitudes – the characters hash it out over their feelings towards white people, their approaches to activism past and present, and the spaces in which they feel they do and don’t belong.
Marcia prides herself on her good education and career as a barrister, but some others in the family see her as submitting to whiteness. Standards differ across the ages; Jermaine tells his mum off for calling his girlfriend “white trash”, claiming the term is racist, which she responds to with scoffs.
The performances are strong, and Skeete deserves kudos for stepping into the hefty role of Dawn at late notice and giving an engaging, emotionally-charged performance. Llewellyn as Marcia is fun but appropriately prim, and Laird provides welcome comic relief at moments of high melodrama. Paulette Randall’s direction is nuanced and creates a sense of a real family falling apart before us.
Saying this, Williams’ script feels a little overstuffed. Getting into everything from infidelity to political scandal to gang violence, there are too many plot points being flung about. We don’t actually get to see any of it happening though, we’re just told that it does.
Marcia and Dawn’s relationship is so compelling, but the choice to confine it to this strangely barebones, unhomely lounge feels limiting. Marcia is having an affair with a white politician – with devastating consequences – but the fact we never get to see them together, or gain insight into why she loves him, somewhat undermines its impact. The second act feels drawn out and teetering on the repetitive.
Nevertheless, The Fellowship is a moving and hard-hitting family portrait that does a lovely job of imbuing the specific experience of Black Britishness with universal resonance.
The Fellowship runs at Hampstead Theatre until July 23; hampsteadtheatre.com
