We have, of late, rightly spent much time interrogating and fretting over our national attitudes to race. It is therefore fascinating and yes, somewhat unsettling, to watch an examination of this ever-loaded topic from an entirely different viewpoint, namely an office in Singapore staffed by women from several Asian countries.
“Can you be too white?” is just one of the many provocative lines thrown at us by writer Anchuli Felicia King, herself of Thai-Australian heritage, who writes in a memorable programme note that “casting this play is really f***ing hard… just generally don’t be a dick about it”.
We’re in the offices of cosmetics firm Clearday, a draft of whose crass new advert for skin-whitening cream White Pearl has been leaked, causing an international social media feeding frenzy.
In the team of six employees, among whom Kae Alexander’s Built and Katie Leung’s Sunny stand out for energy and attitude, the reaction to the advert exposes worrying divisions, as crude generalisations and ugly stereotypes start to rear up. It’s not hard to imagine this play causing offence to various groups.
Nana Dakin’s production is certainly over-broad at times, and has an occasional tendency towards shriekiness, but what King does so efficiently is to drive unflinchingly towards many awkward places it would be easier to swerve and avoid.
She also asks the universally pertinent question: how much solidarity can we ever expect from our colleagues?
Until June 15 (020 7565 5000, royalcourttheatre.com)
