For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy (Royal Court) London Reviews and Tickets

85%

(2 Reviews)

Positive

100%

Mixed

Negative

Members say

Verse, Songs, Important, Absorbing, High energy

About the Show

Six Black men are vulnerable with one another at a group therapy session.

Writer and Director Ryan Calais Cameron’s latest play is a response to Ntozake Shange's 1975 choreopoem "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf". Here, a group of six Black men tell their own stories of living in a society that doesn't always accept them using music, movement and verse. Co-directed by 2019 JMK Young Director Award winner, Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu ("Little Baby Jesus", "Sundown Kiki", "Sweet Like Chocolate Boy").

Member Reviews (2)

Important, Dance, Songs, Verse, High energy

See it if you want to see passion storytelling What you see on the outside isn't necessarily indicative of what's going on in the head or heart

Don't see it if the shows title isn’t your choice of preferred theatre.

Entertaining, Absorbing

See it if You want an more nuanced view of young black males, their hopes, dreams, fears & what they go through on a daily basis internally and extern

Don't see it if Go see it& learn that there is more to black men then headlines portray

Critic Reviews (6)

...Cameron’s secret weapon – and that of his excellent cast – is humour. If ‘For Black Boys…’ can veer towards earnest cliché, there’s always a wickedly funny joke to undercut the seriousness, and Cameron has a wonderful ear for the merciless pisstaking patter of a group of lads.
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Given the title there’s a surprising amount of joy in Ryan Calais Cameron’s play. It’s a mosaic of young British black men’s experience, often laugh-out-loud funny and physically exuberant, occasionally poetic, but with a recurring undertow of dread.
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Maybe because of being (presumably) written in lockdown, it’s bursting with energy. The individuals are excellent – Lawrence’s heartbreaking reveal of Midnight’s childhood trauma is a standout – but the collective is what’s powerful, here.
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This tender, poignant and vitally populist show’s cumulative impact is potentially profound. It has the power to make you want to treat your fellow human beings, regardless of their skin tone, with greater kindness and respect.
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But the other thing about this production that has not changed is its intention. That affirmation is no less necessary than it was last year: Black boys, you are beautiful, you are valuable – and you matter. How wonderful that more people get to receive this message.
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Slowly but surely, society is waking up to the mental health and suicide crisis affecting young males. And as Ryan Calais Cameron's lively and meaningful new show makes clear, young black men are at particular risk due to the discrimination they face in a white-run society.
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Trailer

Creative team