09-07-2025
Noughts & Crosses review — star-crossed lovers shine amid the gloom
School parties may well be out in force, taking notes in the restful surroundings of Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, but I'm not sure many adults will enjoy this heavy-handed version of Malorie Blackman's dystopian novel about a Britain where downtrodden white people are kept in their place by a contemptuous black elite.
Dominic Cooke's adaptation — first staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company two decades ago — constantly strikes a moralising note, while Tinuke Craig's lacklustre production rushes through scene after scene, leaving us to try to make sense of a collection of remorselessly one-dimensional characters. The white underdogs suffer their fate like grim-faced extras from EastEnders; the black rulers resemble the smug, feckless cast of a Jilly Cooper novel.
Corinna Brown and Noah Valentine at least bring youthful vitality to the roles of the star-crossed lovers Sephy and Callum, and you can have a certain amount of fun spotting the occasional parallels with Romeo and Juliet. But there's an awful lot of shouting of pedestrian dialogue as the duo try to pursue their romantic dreams and an IRA-style bombing campaign nudges the Establishment into taking brutal counter-measures.
When a shopping centre is blown up by members of the Liberation Militia, the government resorts to the hangman. The hectoring mood is depressingly reminiscent of Regent's Park's attempt in 2022 to turn Antigone into a sloganeering 21st-century parable about populism and Islamic extremists.
A bleak storyline is complemented by unalluring visuals. The designer, Colin Richmond, has created a grim backdrop of rusting steel corridors, columns and ladders; his costume palette is dominated by muted greys and blues. Scenes of violence add routine touches of slow-motion choreography. Actors hover, chorus-like, in the gallery, silently looking on as the lovers confront their fate.
As for the racial hierarchy, it's depicted in unabashedly simplistic terms, evoking a world somewhere between Jim Crow America and Apartheid South Africa. Habib Nasib Nader makes the most of the underwritten role of Sephy's father, who just happens to be the deputy prime minister.
