Death of England: Michael is a gem of a play offering an uncompromising exploration of the complexities and nuances of life within the English white working class. Its writers, Clint Dyer and Roy Williams have blended a deeply personal story with broader issues in society, resulting in a rich and layered portrayal of masculinity, race and identity in modern England.
The play invites audiences to confront uncomfortable truths and reflect on the diverse and often conflicting features of contemporary English society. It’s a one person show so it lives or dies on the performance of its star and Thomas Coombes excels. He is intense and captivating, delivering a remarkable portrayal of Michael with depth and authenticity and produces one of the most physically and vocally demanding performances that I have seen in a long time.
Michael is a white, laddish, London man who finds himself struggling to come to terms with the recent death of his father. This moment in his life becomes the catalyst for an emotional unravelling when he delivers a eulogy before his friends and family at his father’s funeral, revealing some unvarnished truths that have long been kept beneath the surface.
His father held racist views and although Michael seemed embarrassed by this, it turns out that some of his own views on race, though less explicit and kept hidden until this point, are also questionable. In this way the play explores both overt prejudice and its insidious nature that can be quietly embedded within someone who on the surface appears to be progressive.
The story of the play shifts seamlessly between past and present, allowing the audience to witness the gradual erosion of Michael’s relationship with his father and with his friend Delroy. Michael’s father, Alan, ran a flower stall, outwardly projecting a veneer of tolerance while privately harbouring deep-seated bigotry. In spite of growing up in this environment, Michael’s closest friend is Delroy, a black guy he has known since school days. He gets on well with Michael’s mum, Denise, even preferring her Jamaican patties to his own mother’s more bland English cooking.
His sister Carly is also Delroy’s girlfriend and is pregnant with their child. These characters only appear in the play through the use of multiple voices, subtle variations of gestures and changes of posture by Coombs to cleverly bring each of them to life. When Michael speaks to another character, they are represented onstage by simple props like a flat cap for his father, a stuffed toy bulldog for Carly and a pair of boxing gloves for Michael, to ingeniously allow the audience to follow with whom he is conversing.
We are taken back to the moment Alan dies, seemingly having a heart-attack after watching the Euros football final in 2021. His final words were to racially abuse the black English footballers who missed penalties in the shoot out against Italy. This moment highlights the complex relationship some people in this country have with race: the footballers were celebrated as English when they contributed to the national team’s success but they were labelled as black when they missed their penalties, leading to England’s defeat. This theme continues after the funeral when Michael meets Riz, an Indian restaurant owner who was a friend and confidant of Alan’s. Michael finds it difficult to reconcile this with his dad’s racist opinions and when he is told more about the friendship, he begins to question how well he really knew his father.
The intimacy of the @sohoplace Theatre makes it a good venue for this this production, allowing Coombes to interact with the audience in a way that wouldn’t be possible in a larger setting, including being able to address comments at specific audience members and even sharing Penguin chocolate bars with some of them. Overall, the play feels less like a monologue and more like one side of a conversation with the audience.
The minimalist set design features a series of raised red platforms arranged in the shape of the cross of St George, serving as a powerful visual representation of national identity. This simple yet evocative setup becomes the canvas upon which the play unfolds. Under Clint Dyer‘s bold and compelling direction, the space is transformed into a dynamic and immersive environment. He ensures that every corner of the stage is utilised to its full potential, creating a world where the audience feels intimately connected to the narrative. The stark and unadorned nature of the set mirrors the raw and unfiltered emotions of the character, making the experience all the more powerful and thought-provoking.
Death of England: Michael is a great example of the power of contemporary theatre. At the heart of this triumph is Thomas Coombes‘s exceptional performance which captivates and engages the audience from start to finish. This is an important play that has a lot to say about our country and our politics and deserves to be seen by a wide audience.
Need to know: Death of England: The Plays runs at Soho Place until 28 Sept 2024. See listing.
