Joe Guy

Synopsis

Joe Boateng, the ‘David Beckham’ of his generation, is Ghanaian. Naomi, his childhood sweetheart is British and of Jamaican parentage. With Joe’s escalating celebrity status comes huge sacrifices, accusations of selling out, temptations and life changing choices. Joe Guy is a stark and powerful contemporary story... fast-paced and exciting. It explores the historical tension and bitter prejudices existing between African and Caribbean British communities where young descendants from Africa distance themselves from a unified urban Black Britain. This urgent examination of identity and celebrity is told in Tiata Fahodzi’s renowned visceral style. Recommended for ages 14+

Our Review:

30 October 2007

A modern variation on Golden Boy, Clifford Odets’s fable of a black boxer punching his way out of the ghetto into fame and misfortune, Roy Williams’s arresting new play at the Soho Theatre, Joe Guy, offers a similar morality in the story of a brilliant young black British footballer who makes it big and messes up.

Ten years is all it takes to go from no-one to big gun, and we start near the end with Joe Boateng – the stunning young actor Abdul Salis in what is surely a career-defining performance – larging it up in an interview with a white female journalist (Pippa Nixon) while his minder Buddy (Mo Sesay in the first of three beautifully rounded portrayals) high-fives and “yo-mans” in the background.

We have seen some dreadful headlines over the recent years of cash-fuelled debauchery in the Premiership that implicate players in drugs, drunk driving and after-match rape scenarios in plush hotels. This...

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Latest User Review

Mark - 15 November 2007:

We saw this last saturday matinee - packed house, which was well deserved, as the play takes difficult subjects and bounces around energetically and intelligently, and entertained the audience. The actors are superb esp. Salis and Sesay. It's very very funny too! Roy Williams has scored again (bad pun) - it should extend or transfer....

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