THERE'S ONLY ONE WAYNE MATTHEWS. To 27 October.
London
THERE’S ONLY ONE WAYNE MATTHEWS
by Roy Williams.
Polka Theatre 240 The Broadway SW19 1SB To 27 October 2007.
Tue-Sat 2pm.
BSL Signed/Post-show discussion 24 Oct.
Runs 1hr No interval.
TICKETS: 020 8543 4888.
www.polkatheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 23 October.
A play well-matched to its audience.
There’s only one Roy Williams, for that matter, though he’s at present a playwright of two halves, with his football play Joe Guy transferring from Ipswich to London just as this Polka play for 10+ on the sport moves into its closing week. Both plays are about identity, and specifically black identity in multi-ethnic British society.
Wayne wants to be a footballer but he never will be because he can’t play. He’s taunted at secondary school as ‘Irish Pele’, the footballing prowess of the second word undermined by the racist insult implied in the first. His mother recently dead, his dad sunk in consequent depression, Wayne models himself on school football champ Carl Wilkins. But Carl has his own problems.
A new friend likes art – that’s allowed ‘cos he’s from a posh fee-paying school which his family can no longer afford. Amid the bullying and the unsympathetic teachers, Wayne rejects the newcomer, until he can finally see that drawing rather than kicking is where his strength lies.
As the two characters’ joint vision of London (a creation to gladden the Mayoral heart) gradually takes shape on the sloping rear of Liz Cooke’s bare setting Wayne realises how to be Wayne Matthews, rather than trying to fit an idealist, peer-influenced self-image.
There’s enough here to fit any young person who might watch the show, and there’s a more specific celebration of Black achievement in soccer throughout. It’s just not Wayne’s gig, that’s all. Acting's certainly the right job for Darren Hart and Ashley Chin, who present Wayne and Carl’s dilemmas succinctly, also flashing expertly through rapid vignettes of parents, sisters, teachers, and school bullies.
New Polka boss Jonathan Lloyd directs fluidly, allowing a few risky moments of quiet late on where teenage attention-spans might be breached. But, vitally, his production realises the seriousness of Williams’ characters as well as the humour of some of their, very recognisable, situations.
Wayne Matthews: Darren Hart.
Carl Wilkins: Ashley Chin.
Director: Jonathan Lloyd.
Designer: Liz Cooke.
Lighting: Chahine Yavroyan.
Sound: Julian Butler.
2007-10-24 09:36:58