Quantcast

Ashley Walters as David
Ashley Walters as David

Review Round-up: Agbaje's Off the Endz On Form?

Date: 23 February 2010

After winning an Olivier last year for her debut Gone Too Far!, in the Royal Court Upstairs (See News, 21 Oct 2009), Bola Agbaje returned to Sloane Square last week, premiering her latest play Off the Endz in the main Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, where it opened on Friday 19 February 2010 (previews from 11 February) and continues until 13 March.

In Off the Endz, Sharon (Lorraine Burroughs) is a hard-working nurse living with well-intentioned, aspirational businessman Kojo (Daniel Francis), whose best mate David (Ashley Walters), a habitual offender and Sharon’s former boyfriend, has just come out of prison. David is a foul-mouthed, abusive scumbag, with Neanderthal social attitudes and a leech-like dependency on his friends’ hospitality. Jeremy Herrin directs.

Overnight critics were somewhat divided as to whether Off the Endz matches Agbaje’s earlier plays Gone Too Far! and Detaining Justice (at the Tricycle last year) – while some considered it “another ace play”, others found it “naïve” and overly “schematic” – but they agreed that Agbaje, aged 29, remains an “extraordinary natural talent” with “a terrific future”. Here, her work benefits from Herrin’s “brisk” and “expertly acted” production, with Ashley Walters’ “incorrigibly cocky” and “blistering” performance as David a particular standout.

  • Michael Coveney on Whatsonstage.com (four stars) – “The promisingly talented Bola Agbaje creates a cheeky black version echo of the Royal Court’s most famous debutant, John Osborne … The acting is almost embarrassingly raw, in a good way, with Ashley Walters pushing us to the limit with his cascade of appalling remarks first to an office secretary (feistily done by Madeline Appiah) and a job centre receptionist (an unfazed Natasha Williams) … Maybe Agbaje should soon start broadening her canvas and writing more characters. But her subject is so rich and her vision of it so dense, the startling scenes of confrontation and dispute are more than enough for now.”

  • Benedict Nightingale in The Times (four stars) – “Not long ago the Royal Court was the centre of victim drama. And not long ago the subject matter of Bola Agbaje’s new play would have come across very differently. After all, it involves a black couple desperate to leave their sink estate and raise a baby in a safer place, only to be thwarted by escalating debts, the arrival of a needy friend who has been in prison, and gun-toting teenagers. Society must be the villain, mustn’t it? Not according to Agbaje … (who) takes a dim view of the credit-card culture … Is it reactionary to find this refreshing? Not after you’ve encountered Agbaje’s most vital character, Ashley Walters’ David, the friend who has emerged from jail with his sense of entitlement raring to go. Agbaje’s ending is a bit wishful, but also ominous. She doesn’t sentimentalise … or pass easy judgments … At just 29; Agbaje is a writer with a terrific future.”

  • Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph (three stars) – “One of the great pleasures of British theatre in recent years has been the emergence of a new generation of outstanding black playwrights ... So credit to the Royal Court for giving its main stage to Bola Agbaje, who has several fine plays to her credit. Unfortunately, Off the Endz, lively, entertaining and sometimes tensely dramatic though it is, doesn’t strike me as being in the same league as earlier successes such as Gone Too Far, and her superb play about asylum seekers in Britain, Detaining Justice … To be frank, it all seems a touch schematic, and the characters, though vividly sketched, lack real depth and development. But there is no doubt that the piece has great theatrical energy and is well performed in Jeremy Herrin’s brisk production ... It’s not a great play, but for its 75-minute running time, it rarely relaxes its grip.”

  • Henry Hitchings in the Evening Standard (three stars) – “By far the most memorable feature of (Agbaje’s new play) is David, who’s realised in blistering style by Ashley Walters, once of So Solid Crew … Although the thwarted aspiration of black Britons has potential as a subject, the writing lacks bite and the storytelling feels a touch naïve. There are a few moments of sharp humour, but there’s not much subtlety or shading, and the characters’ foibles are over familiar. It’s the charismatic presence of Walters that raises Jeremy Herrin’s production above a rather heavy-limbed sort of ordinariness. As this swaggering huckster for whom life is little more than a corrupt game, he’s a revelation - a study in cruel magnetism, dynamic and haunting.”

  • Paul Taylor in the Independent (four stars) – “Off the Endz illustrates Bola Agbaje’s extraordinary natural talent for blending penetrating moral insight, razor-sharp awareness of the zeitgeist and a lovely mischievous wit that is prepared to go off-message in order to be artistically on-song … Jeremy Herrin's production is expertly acted … Ashley Walters is a dab hand at playing the kind of incorrigibly cocky but also rather sexy young man that a woman might want to both slap down hard and then snog … The play is very funny as well as disturbing … Another ace play from Agbaje.”

    • - by Terri Paddock

    Related Content

    Booking Tickets & Show Listings
    Off the Endz! Listing Page
    Internal Links
    Off the Endz starstarstarstar - 22nd Feb 2010 reviews



    Write a Comment
    Give us your opinion on this entry
    Comment:
    Name:
    Required, will appear on website
    Email:
    Required, will not appear on website
    Confirm: Please type in
    Please enter this number > SEVENTY-EIGHT < Just the two digits only, without any spaces.

    Free Newsletter

    Subscribe to our free newsletter

    Featured Video

    Twitter

    Featured Editor's Picks

    Infographic: The economic impact of Arts & Culture in the UK
    When Culture Secretary Maria Miller called for the arts to make their "economic case" for subsidy, t...
    Bonnie WrightPlays Cast: Harry Potter star in Southwark Moment, more for Branagh's Macbeth
    Bonnie Wright, best known for playing Ginny Weasley in the Harry Potter films, will make her stage d...
    Ben Turner as Amir & Farshid Rokey as Hassan in <i>The Kite Runner</i>. Photo by Robert DayBrief Encounter with ... The Kite Runner's Ben Turner
    Ben Turner stars in the stage version of the bestselling book The Kite Runner, which runs at Liverpo...
    Stephen Boxer as Titus AndronicusTitus Andronicus (RSC)
    starstarstar
    This latest production of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, to borrow from football punditry, is a p...
    Regent's Park Open Air TheatreTake Five: Britain's outdoor theatres
    With half-term approaching, the weather (hopefully) set to improve for the bank holiday weekend and ...
    West End Live in actionWest End Live returns to Trafalgar Square next month
    West End Live, a weekend of free entertainment from top London shows, will return to Trafalgar Squar...
    Robert Sean Leonard as Atticus FinchRobert Sean Leonard: 'I carry the ghost of Gregory Peck on my shoulders'
    Actor Robert Sean Leonard is currently playing Atticus Finch in Timothy Sheader's production of To K...
    Robert Sean Leonard & Eleanor Worthing-CoxTo Kill A Mockingbird
    starstarstarstar
    Twenty years ago, a young Robert Sean Leonard appeared on the London stage with Alan Alda in...
    X Factor musical titled I Can't Sing!, opens Palladium March 2014
    The forthcoming X Factor musical will be called I Can't Sing! The Musical and will premiere at the L...
    Tom Hiddleston. Photo: Dan WoollerDonmar stages Nick Payne premiere, Wesker's Roots & Tom Hiddleston in Coriolanus
    The Donmar Warehouse has announced its new season, which features the premiere of Nick Payne's new p...
    >> More Editor's Picks
    >> Most Recent Stories
    >> Most Popular Stories

    Follow Us

    Facebook Twitter Google Plus YouTube