They recall being at the Sixth Form Debating Contest and engage in fun banter.  The play takes places on a traverse staging with new seats raked at the rear of the stage and the set is multiple strip lights set at interesting angles which change colour in Neil Austin’s design. In the debating scene the lights change to red.

Tosin Cole as Dre has a charming tenderness which makes us warm to him. He tells us he has opened his own restaurant with the cuisine based on both of their heritages, West African and Congolese. Heather Agyepong is more cautious but likeable and we long for them to fully connect. There are profound moments and those with a gentle humour. 

So these performances delight but there is poignancy in Benedict’s Lombe’s writing of the darker moments when they have missed connection.  A brilliant example of her expressive writing is in the description by Dre of their relative social standing back then.  “Our home looked like your house had given birth to it.”

This is a play I want to read to recapture the very special composition and imagery.  Please Lynette Linton, such a special director, keep reminding Benedict Lombe that she owes you another play!