Death of England: Michael, @sohoplace Review

Thomas Coombes in Death of England: Michael at sohoplace. Photo by Helen Murray

Written by Jennie for Theatre and Tonic.

Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review. All opinions are our own.

---

Fierce and current, Roy William’s Michael steam-rollers into SohoPlace for its West End transfer.

In a one-act play, Death of England; Michael is the first in the trilogy of plays about racism, identity and England. Thomas Coombes plays Michael, an East End born-and-bred man who’s grieving the death of his father. Battling with his father’s extreme racism, Michael talks about how his father made him the man he is and showed him the man he doesn’t want to become.

Visually, this production is the definition of minimalistic. You’re greeted with a bright red cross as the centre point on the stage, which is of course the England flag. Dotted just above the stage are objects on shelves – a soft-toy bulldog, a pair of boxing gloves, a statue, a laptop, and ‘Dad’ arranged in funeral flowers. These, we quickly learn, represent people in Michael’s life, his sister being the bulldog and Delroy (the subject of the next play in the trilogy) being the boxing gloves. The use of objects here is executed very well - any other way and it could feel like a GCSE Drama performance, but the show manages to escape that vibe. The lighting in Michael is stunning – perfectly placed to track Coombes’ every movement whilst pushing the story forward. The music here is also something that is used effectively, although it was played so loud you could barely decipher the lyrics of each song – important when needing to know the message trying to be conveyed. However, it served its purpose during the transition moments of the play. Music aside, the actual sound design of the play was fantastic. The intricacies of the echo and reverb used to highlight specific words in the script, as well as the use of pre-recorded speech. It sounded great and landed perfectly.

Read more: Death of England: Delroy, @sohoplace Review

Of course, since Michael is a one-hander, we have to talk about Thomas Coombes. Coombes is powerful from the word go. Initially, I was worried that Michael would feel like a big monologue instead of a play, but Coombes is an excellent storyteller, switching emotions quickly and naturally. In parts, Michael felt like a stand-up routine, and Coombes played the comedic parts well and sensitively, but it is also is a release of anger, confusion and hurt. Coombes also does well with the audience interaction elements of this play, which draws the audience in to make it feel like a dialogue between performer and viewer. This works well, especially during the more political moments. And of course, Coombes’ stamina is incredible – his energy does not waver for the entire 100 minutes, and his energy is certainly high. Unfortunately, there is one element of his performance that did not land for myself. During an incredibly emotional moment of the play, in which he finds out a secret about his father, Coombes has an almost ‘physical theatre’ moment, expressing maybe anger, maybe sadness in slow motion. This took away from the emotion of the scene, which is a shame considering how pivotal it is to the story. However, it is undeniable that Coombes’ Michael is portrayed as perfectly heart-breaking and heart-warming all at the same time.

Back to positivity, however, because the writing is spot on. The thing that jumps out to me about the script is how it bridges the gap between extremist views and everyday racism. Dotted with frequent racist language, Michael makes these moments of racism obvious without babytalking the audience nor disrupting the flow of the show. Perhaps this is down to the excellent direction of Clint Dyer, who certainly made the most of the space to tell this story. Sohoplace feels like the ideal setting for such a modern play – the fact that it’s in the round helps us to pinpoint Michael as a character, and the political nature of the play means that it’s not distracting to see other members of the audience. 

All in all, Michael is funny and infuriating and this transfer certainly does the writing justice. I encourage people of all races, upbringings and opinions to see this show as well as the rest of the Death of England trilogy during its West End residency.

At SohoPlace until 28 September.

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆