How many official languages?

“You always give bushmeat a pass.”

Sihle to Bonolo

Olivia Darnley as Lynette, Mimî M Khayisa as Bonolo, Sifiso Mazibuko as Sihle and Scott Sparrow as Chris (Photo: Camilla Greenwell)

David Byrne’s tenure of the Royal Court goes from strength to strength with this play A Good House by Amy Jephta and produced jointly by the Royal Court, the Bristol Old Vic and the Market Theatre Johannesburg. Nancy Medina, Artistic Director of the Bristol Old Vic, directs this six hander here. Set in current day South Africa where everyone is conscious of the history of the white and black people, a black family moves into an expensive, middle class white estate. 

The issue however is not with this family in the middle class enclave as it was in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun but with a shack erected on an empty plot of land with its unseen residents, presumed to be poor and black and overcrowded.  The play opens with a mild confrontation between white resident Christopher (Scott Sparrow) when his route to work is blocked by heavy machinery which Sihle (Sifiso Maziburo) is using to renovate a neighbouring house.  These debates about access and parking are often the cause of disputes between neighbours.

Mimî M Khayisa as Bonolo and Sifiso Mazibuko as Sihle (Photo: Camilla Greenwell)

Two years after Sihle and his wife Bonolo (Mimî M Khayisa) have moved in, they host Christopher and his wife Lynette (Olivia Darnley) for a party with wine and nibbles.  The first scene to have the audience exploding with laughter is when Bonolo slowly demonstrates her new aerator for refreshing the red wine with great drama and aplomb as each glass is poured slowly from high above.  When all four glasses are poured they are left on the table for everyone to help themself.  No-one is allowed to clink the expensive crystal. The conversation is full of one upmanship with comparing notes about trips to Italy.

Chris waxes lyrical about how long they have lived there before getting together, but his real reason for meeting soon becomes apparent.  The white couple want action taken against the shack squatters and they want Sihle and Bonolo to deliver the petition.  Presumably coming from a black couple, their action is less likely to be attributed to racism but we know it is still about class.  The script is laced with small and witty judgments to make us laugh like Chris thinking that Sihle works in security rather than in financial securities!

Mimî M Khayisa as Bonolo (Photo: Camilla Greenwell)

Bonolo and Sihle fall about laughing at the squirming of their white neighbours and we laugh too at their exuberance.  Do we expect Bonolo and Sihle to identify with the shack dwellers whose situation is similar to how Sihle grew up and where Bonolo’s cousins live now?  She has never visited them. Sihle points out to Bonolo that he was her first black boyfriend.  The dynamic shifts when new purchasers Andrew (Kai Luke Brummer) and Jess (Robyn Rainsford) have bought a house, they can barely afford, with a view of the expanding shack and its impact on property prices in the enclave. 

The performances are good – especially those of Mimî M Khayisa and Sifiso Mazibuko. Ultz’s set shows the background shack as well as the affluent African themed interior. Don’t expect Amy Jeptha’s  play to have a neat conclusion because there isn’t one anyone knows about.  Social mobility propels those who were poor into a different social milieu where they will encounter different values, which they can choose to adopt or reject.  In A Good House the audience will have a terrific time laughing at the moral conflicts.

Kai Luke Brummer as Andrew and Robyn Rainsford as Jess (Photo: Camilla Greenwell)

Production Notes

A Good House

Written by Amy Jeptha

Directed by Nancy Medina

Cast

Starring:

Mimî M Khayisa

Sifiso Mazibuko

Kai Luke Brummer

Robyn Rainsford

Olivia Darnley

Scott Sparrow

Creatives

Director: Nancy Medina

Designer: ULTZ

Lighting Designer: Chris Davey

Composer: Femi Temowo

Sound Designer:  Elena Peña

Information

Running Time: One hour 40 minutes without an interval

Booking to 8th February 2025

Theatre: 

Jerwood Theatre Downstairs

Royal Court Theatre

Sloane Square

London SW1W 4AS

Phone: 020 7565 5000

Website: royalcourttheatre.com

Tube: Sloane Square

Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge

at the Royal Court

on 17th January 2025

Cast with view of the Shack. (Photo: Camilla Greenwell)