”Black Superhero” at the Royal Court Theatre – review

The white male mid-life crisis has been a mainstay of theatre ever since Hamlet. So it’s only fair that Danny Lee Wynter in his debut play should add a work about a Black male queer mid-life crisis to the canon.

In fact, Hamlet himself makes an appearance in this lively affair. Our hero David longs to play the Dane, but he is auditioning for the part of his sidekick Horatio which just about sums up how he feels about his own life. He’s an actor, like all his friends and they are all having varying degrees of success. But one, King, is a superstar: he’s landed the part of Craw in a Marvel-style franchise and has thus become a Black superhero.

It’s the complex, shifting relationship between David and King that provides the motor for a drama that examines David’s own psychological traumas, the need or otherwise for actors to speak out on issues when they become public figures, the nature of friendship and family, the need for love and the significance of superheroes. Plus, a long discussion on the merits of Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight.

There’s arguably too much going on. Wynter’s dialogue is consistently funny and often very punchy – there are some sharp digs about the roles of Black actors in the film industry, the difficulties of dating a white man, and a very pertinent line about an all-Black Hamlet, directed by a white woman, where everybody is singing Negro spirituals. But it is all a bit inward-looking and Wynter doesn’t always pursue a clear line on where the action is heading. As David’s hold on his own life disintegrates, the play becomes more predictable and less interesting.

It is, however, beautifully served by a production confidently directed by Daniel Evans and designed with great flair by Joanna Scotcher. She sets the action in a series of pyramidical neon arches (lighting by Ryan Day) that both hold the daily life of the friends and allow a series of visionary events when King becomes Craw and appears in a dark leather cape, suspended from above like a mystical being.

It’s a clever visual evocation of the play’s theme – the sense that everyone is waiting for a hero, but that when he arrives he might just have feet of clay. Yet for all its cleverness, the scenes that spring most vividly and fully to life are those where David is talking to his sister Syd, who is working as a children’s entertainer (dressed in Crawtopian costume and cape) and worrying about how to make it through the day while keeping him safe.

Rochenda Sandall (the only woman in the cast) just about steals the show as the direct-talking Syd who rejects David’s characterisation of their mother as “not exactly Maria von Trapp” with the immortal line “Maria von Trapp didn’t have to deal with Redbridge council”, and consistently tries to ground his dreams and disappointments in reality.

Wynter himself is an attractive presence as David, baffled by the turns his life is taking, clinging to hope yet falling into despair, while as King, Dyllón Burnside is a persuasive mixture of entitled and insecure, both proud of his fame and uncomfortable with it. The entire cast are strong and convincing. Yet it remains a frustrating evening, full of potential, but lacking in superpower.