Theatre Review: Fairview

Welcome to my last review of 2019. As a little Christmas gift to you all, it will also be one of my shortest. You’re welcome.

The show I’m reviewing is Fairview, rightful winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for drama and currently enjoying a justifiable sellout run at the Young Vic. And that’s the review really: it’s brilliant, if you can possibly get a ticket - good luck with that - then you should.

Written by Jackie Sibblies Drury, who is clearly an actual living genius, I don’t really want to tell you anything about the play itself. You should go in as blind as possible. You probably know it’s a play about race and about contemporary attitudes to race and that’s really all you need to know. It’s form is non-traditional. It is ferociously clever; brilliant, brilliant writing. Hilarious, spectacularly uncomfortable, deeply complex, devastating, cruel, grimly hopeful. It avoids every single obvious point about race and every single obvious way of making the points it makes instead. It’s thrilling and awful and amazing to watch.

Directed by Nadia Latif, who has an absolute grip on what this play is and what it needs to make it work, the production is as close to alchemy as it’s possible to get. Tom Scutt’s design is perfect (if you’re a fan of Scutt’s work on A Very Expensive Poison up the road at The Old Vic then you’ll enjoy this too). The costumes are astonishing. Sound designer Xana does amazing work. Choreographer Malik Nashad Sharpe’s moves are totally on point. It’s a gem of a production.

A gem of a cast too. Again, saying too much in this regard would be a spoiler but the small cast are fully invested in the play and it shows. They’re all pitch perfect. The highlight is undoubtedly Donna Banya, who is utterly electrifying - the more so as it becomes more obvious what is actually going on in the play. But there’s strong work all round here. Everyone is on top of their game.

Look, I’m aware this is a weird review. Trying to tell you why to see a show whilst saying almost literally nothing about it is beyond my limited powers as a writer. But see it you should. Because my goodness what a show Fairview is. 

Fairview is at The Young Vic until January 23rd. The run is sold out, but returns are available online and in person each day. Queue for them.

I sat in seat A13 - the middle of the front row of the stalls - for this and paid a frankly embarrassing £10. If you have any choice in the matter, and you’re unlikely to, it’s a great seat.