Two men fall in love in the period of racial violence in America which saw the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement. However, the fact that they are an interracial couple puts their search for personal happiness in a political context that is difficult to ignore. While the white member of the couple is a serious political activist, his black partner is a playwright who prioritises his art and teaching career. It is a sweet and simple love story that gains most of its depth from being placed against a backdrop of the tumult that typifies the outside world. In fact, its theme is universal. How do we balance the struggle and sacrifices involved in finding one's personal place of happiness while simultaneously responding to our responsibility to be part of a society and to fight against injustice? Unfortunately, neither the playwright, Harrison David Rivers, nor the director, Billy Porter, seem to entirely trust their material. Rivers, uses the popular, but increasingly overworked, device of time shifts to try to add complexity to his story, while Director Porter, can't resist the unnecessary breaking of the fourth wall. Both devices seem to suggest a lack of confidence that the play's characters and their love story are of sufficient interest to stand on their own and engage theatregoers. The ploy of having the characters directly engage with the audience and, at one point, climb through the rows of theatre seats actually seems counterproductive. It breaks our connection with the characters' world. To appreciate and experience their conundrum we need to be assimilated into their comforting cocoon that promises escape from social responsibility. Once lured into the characters' amorous idyll, the audience can actually experience their dilemma and their conflicting views about engagement with society. The meta muddling of realities obscures, rather than enhances, audience involvement. The strong points of this production are the truly touching nature of the love story, and the fine performances of Omari Douglas and Alexander Lincoln. They sensitively create, and nicely delineate, a connection between two emotionally intelligent individuals, and it seems a shame when the complexities of this relationship are reduced to a squabble about infidelity. Indeed, that incident, which threatens the relationship, and the random violence which ends it, both seem like familiar dramatic paths that don't really do justice to the nicely drawn characters or the nuanced dilemma they face. This Bitter Earth has a positive and engaging message, but it would seem to need a re-working that makes it truer to itself.
Rated: ★★★
Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by Tristram Kenton
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