Oxford Street by Levi David Addai

Boy Two - Reece Beaumont
Others - Will Beer & Demi Oyediran
Loraina Marceli - Preeya Kalidas
Boy One - Daniel Kaluuya
Aleksander Rydzewski - Kristian Kiehling
Stephanie Hannon - Amelia Lowdell
Kofi Graham - Nathaniel Martello-White
Emmanuel Lamptey - Cyril Nri
Darrell Obi-Anderson - Ashley Walters
Husnad Khaliq - Shane Zaza

Director Dawn Walton
Designer Soutra Gilmour
I think I saw Sacha Wares in the audience

I went to the first show after this production transferred to the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre following a successful run upstairs in Sloane Square. They moved into a deserted unit of W H Smith departed and I get the feeling they staged this in pretty much the same way as at the start of the run. The performance area was in a cross with the audience in the corners. The furthest points of the corners had a L-shape of a raised area and even included a couple of chairs with backs (rather than the stools) so I plumped for one of them. This turned out to be a huge mistake because I sat next to the small group of women who didn't realise that once the performance has begun, it is the actors turn to talk. The acoustics were not good when the cast had their backs to us in any case but these self-involved women were exacerbating the problem. It was also much too hot and when those women ran out of anything else to say, they complained about the heat.

The play was fun and whilst I am pleased to have seen it in such an interesting venue, I think it would have impacted better on me without the distraction of displacement. Very sweet to see Ashley Walters greet his kiddies after the show and heartening to see so many of the regular RC staff all mucking in to get the show up and running.

The Royal Court