This Bitter Earth review — I was moved to tears by Billy Porter's show

Times

5 hours ago

This two-hander by the American playwright Harrison David Rivers charts a volatile but loving interracial gay relationship with quick wit and deep compassion. The writing is sharp, nuanced and, as the leads in this production at Soho Theatre's Dean Street headquarters amply demonstrate, highly playable. Although set roughly a decade ago in New York City and Minnesota (where Rivers is based), its many-stranded themes of race, class, sexual identity, art and activism are relevant and emotionally rousing. It may seem like a modest show but it has real resonance.
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Jesse, played by Omari Douglas (whose credits include the hit TV series It's a Sin), is a whip-smart, somewhat introverted black playwright from a humble and religious background in the Midwest. As Neil, Alexander Lincoln (who played Jamie Tate in Emmerdale from 2019 to 2021) is by contrast outgoing, from a moneyed New York family on the east coast, and white. Much to his credit, Rivers' cinematically splintered script slips between locations and time without ever confusing us or losing our interest and investment in characters who are by turns flirtatious and lusty, argumentative and tender, silly and serious — in other words, complex, multidimensional people.
It helps, of course, that the two skilful actors share a winning and palpable chemistry. Their director, Billy Porter, is a Tony, Emmy and Grammy-winning actor and singer who just finished a stint as the Emcee in the West End revival of Cabaret. (You may also have seen him in the American television series Pose.) His work here, on the designer Morgan Large's simple, stylish set, is slick yet sensitive. Porter and his cast get the rhythms of the writing just right. Rivers' examination of culture, politics and privilege is funny, intellectually engaging and shot through with feeling.
The audience's presence is deftly acknowledged more than once via direct address, with houselights up and the actors in our midst. The device works. There is tragedy here in the form of a key incident of homophobic violence that is repeated, with variations, several times. It was plain on the press night that some spectators were crying or choking back tears. This life-embracing show may well move you to tears, but it also has the power to shift and heighten your thinking.★★★★☆90minSoho Theatre, London, to Jul 26, sohotheatre.com
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