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Micky Jo
Just how much of yourself would you be willing to sacrifice if it meant finally getting to do the thing you'd always wanted to? Especially if you had no idea that you were about to become one of history's most iconic actors? Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to you if you're listening on podcast platforms. My name is Micky Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre, which is why I was so excited to see the West End transfer of the new play by Ryan Kelly Cameron called Retrograde, which opened earlier this month at the Apollo Theatre in London. The play had already received an acclaimed run at the Kiln Theatre a couple of years ago, directed by that venue's artistic director, Amit Sharma, and it focuses on an interesting and largely undocumented portion of history during which a young Sidney Poitier, prior to fame and success and Academy Awards and becoming the first black actor to win the Academy Award, shattering a very significant glass ceiling, took a meeting with an NBC executive alongside a friend of his, a writer. A meeting which feels as though it has the potential to change the course of his entire life. Because while Sidney and his friend Bobby both think that the meeting is essentially a formality to confirm an agreed deal on a film that they are going to make together, which they will begin filming on Monday morning, it transpires that there is actually a lot more at stake here and more is being asked of both of them, but particularly of Mr. Sidney Poitier than they had anticipated. It's a very interesting one act piece of theatre. There is much attention on the playwright Ryan Calais Cameron after his blistering and brilliant and soul layering previous work for black boys who have Considered Suicide when the Hue Gets Too Heavy, which played multiple sold out seasons in London, and I am very excited to be telling you what I thought of it today. If you have been lucky enough to see Retrograde already, let us know what you thought of it in the comments section down below. And if you would like to stay up to date with all of my reviews both in the West End and on Broadway, make sure you're subscribed to my theatre themed YouTube channel with the notifications turned on or following me on podcast platforms. If you would prefer to hear the sound of my voice in the meantime, here is what I thought of Retrograde. So Retrograde auspiciously takes place in 1955. That is the same year that a young Sidney Poitier, then I believe just under 30 years old, would have his real breakthrough film appearance within the next few years, he will become the first black man to be nominated for the Academy Award. Within a decade, he will have become the first to win. History will remember him always as an artist of tremendous skill and achievement. And we hear flashes of those recognitions in an opening soundscape. But for the purposes of this play, none of that has happened yet. He is a struggling actor, one who believes in his craft and one who prizes his integrity. That's a word you're going to hear many times throughout this discussion. But one who also has yet to be successful. One who is struggling in what was then not only a white dominated industry, but a white dominated society. He's in 1950s America, and there is additional pressure as he needs to work to support his family and has a baby on the way. But if Sidney isn't yet extraordinarily successful, we can already see flashes in him not only of the skill that he would portray on stage, but also of his character, that other thing for which he is so celebrated. We fairly quickly learn that this young Sidney Poitier is an artist of considerable principle. He relates a story about having refused a screen role, one that would have been beneficial and lucrative because he didn't believe that the character's humanity was being uplifted, that it was being sacrificed in the name of characterizations based around race. Now, the man who he's having this conversation with is an NBC lawyer named Larry Parks. It is his corner office that they find themselves in. He's already had a preliminary discussion with the writer Bobby, who, interestingly enough, Parks has an extraordinary and demonstrable distaste of. He seems to resent Bobby on almost every personal level. He does not think much of him. And that's so interesting to us because there is a difference between the way that he responds to Bobby and Sidney. And it's important, too, because we can tell that while he resents Bobby, he likes Sidney. He is charmed by Sidney, but he doesn't respect him sufficiently as a human being. As a result of racial preconceptions and prejudices. These becoming prevalent when, while making niceties, he prompts Sidney to tell him the story of how he became an actor. And Mr. Parks has an understanding of the story that he is expecting to hear. And when Sidney doesn't provide certain details that he thinks are relevant, then he prompts him a little further. He asks, who is supporting you? Who is backing you? Who is financing this career? It is implausible to him that a young black man in that time would have found the success for himself based only on his talent and hard work. Not only that, but he regards him as something of a spectacle, again, a little separate from his humanity. He entreats him to speak with his own Bahamian Caribbean accent, which he even mimics at one point. It quickly becomes uncomfortable, but not overtly so. There are certainly difficult realities yet to come. For now, these are only troubling red flags. But in spite of this, it is with some small modicum of sincerity that Parks attempts to impart advice to Mr. Poitier. He tells him that money breeds happiness and paints a picture about the kind of lifestyle that he could begin to lead if he were to become successful with NBC. And there is a big caveat to this coming later. Very quickly, however, there is a marked tension between the two gentlemen, because Sidney at all times leads with that integrity, leads with his principle, and is not willing to concede even small niceties for the sake of pleasant conversation, something that his associate Bobby finds to be a little unsettling. He, after all, thinks that everything is going to be fine as long as Sidney drinks the drink offered to him by Mr. Parks and says yes to all of the right sentences. When Mr. Parks suggests to him that your role as an artist ought to be to reflect the truth, Sidney ponders, is that your truth or mine? And when Mr. Parks makes reference to the Negro problem, there is a tremendous audience response to Sidney Poitier's retort, which is, I don't think it's the Negro who has the problem. And if we're laughing at this, we have a very different, stunned, powerful response to another of Sidney's utterances, when he More coldly tells Mr. Parks, get ready for us. We're coming. Certain in his conviction even then that the future looked brighter and more promising for African American actors in the US Than it had been, that moment sends shockwaves through the audience, as many of the play's most powerful sections of dialogue do. Now, as we build towards the revelation of exactly what it is that Mr. Parks wants from Sidney, he tells him never to forget who he is and where he is from, from his perspective, putting him in his place and suggesting that he stay there, that he can never truly divorce himself from the circumstances of his birth and from the color of his skin. As far as Mr. Parks is concerned, that is intrinsically part of his identity and how he ought to be treated by society. It's set as a sort of a protection. But we in the audience understand as well as Sidney does that it's really a threat. And sure enough, he soon confirms that there will be no terms of employment for Sidney as an actor at NBC until they can be sure what side he's on. And this is where we get into the real meat of the thing. Because it is the mid-50s. We are in the middle of McCarthyism and the red Scare. And there is this huge concern that has made its way into the world of entertainment about Communist sympathizers in the US A really fascinating and troublingly familiar political and historical period that empowered individuals to demonize those who held or displayed what they considered to be in what they framed as un American values. So speaking out against any particular American political policy, but also advocating for pacifism, for social equality on a handful of fronts. This is also overlapping at the same time with the real momentum of the civil Rights movement, something that Sidney Poitier obviously was very invested in and very involved with. And as well as the energy of that time feeling scarily familiar of today's climate on a slightly more trivial level. It's also interesting to see the parallels in the fear of the entertainment world and this particular lawyer at NBC about what it is that actors may say publicly and how their comments outside of their work on screen may financially affect those projects. It's interesting that despite there being so many differences in the way that the world of entertainment worked between then and now, that this is still something felt very acutely. There are still entire projects which suffer or are cancelled or are recast as the results of comments made by individual performers or the. The actions of individual performers or unearthed revelations about their historical statements and sentiments. But for Sidney, though, this is framed to him as a clause for employed actors, precluding them from public indecency and controversy. What it actually is is a requirement that he denounce un American values and also those who are believed to be promoting them. In particular, the actor and singer turned political activist, Paul Robeson, a friend of Sidney's and a man who he respects a tremendous amount respect that we hear about and we feel vividly through this play. Now, those are the events of the play. Let me tell you a little bit more about how it works dramatically. Now, I found this very interesting in terms of its scale and its scope because it's so completely the opposite of Ryan's previous work for black boys who have considered suicide. When the Hue Gets Too Heavy. That was an example of these multiple intersecting and diverging perspectives on life as a young black man covering a whole host of different topics. It was in such depth. It was so thorough. And this is really just over the Course, it's in real time of just over an hour within this office, set in this one time, an exchange between these three men, one of whom was about to become hugely successful. Sidney Poitiers. And I really understand the fascination around that note of his career. It's such a loaded moment. Because we know there's a sense of dramatic irony here. We know that regardless of what he chooses here, he is going to go on to have this success. He is going to become a memorable name, a huge part of history. But it works so well dramatically regardless. Because the tension of whether or not this choice is going to affect his life isn't really at play here. Because we know what the ultimate outcome is. What instead we are watching. Watching is how he really wrestles with it and how he contends with it. And that's where the real excitement of the piece is. Because it is a little small in its scope and it is a little restricted. And it's not overtly theatrical because it's very true to the events which took place and to his own life. It doesn't have the capacity to be extraordinarily thrilling. After we finally understand what it is that Mr. Parks is asking him to do. We can only turn it over so many times. And it is turned over three or four times because there is the initial conversation where Sidney is coming to terms with that. And he challenges Mr. Parkes about whether it's strictly necessary and whether he can understand it from his perspective. Sidney then discusses it with Bobby, who challenges him to see it a different way. Bobby then has a conversation with Mr. Parks about whether or not they can encourage Sidney to sign it. We get to see different sides of everyone. We get to understand who has depth. We get to see shallowness. At the same time, we get to really understand Sidney's heartbreaking perspective here and the impossible decision that he is forced to make in this difficult position that he's put in. But once you turn the thing over three or four times, we've seen every side of the box. There isn't that much more to it. And it's a little restricted in that sense. And that's really the only shortcoming from this work, as well as the occasional. The heavy handed justification of comings and goings. So Bobby is there to begin with and Sidney is going to arrive. Fine, brilliant dramatic context. We are anticipating his arrival just as the two men are. Bobby then leaves so that Sidney can speak to Mr. Parks individually. Sidney then, sort of repulsed by the events that occur, goes out to get some air, allowing the Other two gentlemen a chance to talk. And then Sidney comes back and Mr. Parks has to leave. Like, we have to do a lot of careful choreography to allow these different subsets of the trio to have conversations. But there are also really great sources of tension. Ryan Kelly Cameron plants little ticking time bombs where he needs to. To give it that sense of. Of urgency again. It's sort of to counterbalance the fact that if we really think about it, we know that there aren't that many things at stake here because it's ultimately going to go well. But as Mr. Parkes finally presents Sidney with a contract to be signed and explains the challenging terms, he also tells him that Sidney's name has been attached to a list of potential Communists, which is set to be announced on Monday morning, or even the next morning. I believe within 24 hours, he is to be branded a Communist sympathizer, which would preclude him not only from working with NBC but from any major studio at the time. Him. In order to prevent this from happening, Mr. Parks has prepared a statement for Sidney to read on the radio. It's at this point that he wants him to denounce Paul Robeson and everything that he stands for, something that Sidney feels is impossible for him to do or impossible for him to do with any real sense of integrity. And that is the focus of this play. It's about integrity for him as a real individual at this time in this actual thing that took place in his life, but also for us watching this and weighing how important it is and understanding his perspective and everything that he is responsible for here. This thing that he knows that he can do and do well, this family that he needs to support, but a sense of a higher purpose, too, and his role within a community as a respected member of that community, and his ability to live with himself. Which isn't to say that Sidney is entirely confident in the decision that he must make here. He really grapples with it and he really makes considerations about what steps he is going to take. All of this accompanied by some brilliant and very subtle creative choices. From director Amit Sharma, we can hear the painful strikes of a ticking clock. We have had this idea introduced in the script by Ryan Calais Cameron, that time is of the essence here, that he is to be heading towards the radio station. There is a car that has pulled up outside, Mr. Parks notes, through a window. Everything, if it's going to happen, needs to happen right now. There's also, I believe, sound amplification on Mr. Parks's desk so that we can Very clearly hear the sound of a signature being written on a contract. Which is such a great choice. Either that or the writing was just incredibly loud. An acting skill in and of itself. And to return to the writing for a moment. 90 minutes of unrelenting tension would be a disservice to this piece. And there are plenty of opportunities for wit and for charm. There's a brilliant exchange of ridiculous insults between Mr. Parks and the writer Bobby. My absolute favorite moment of which is when one of them threatens to slap the other so cross eyed that they'll have to eat off of other people's plates. But even though it is principally the interaction between Sidney and Mr. Parks that is propelling the narrative. It's with Bobby that Sidney has some of the play's most interesting dialogue. And this is where either side of the argument is really exposed. There are a great many things that Bobby says to Sidney which carry some element of truth in them. However, at this point it's already been colored by our visible perception of how desperately he wants success. And also, you know, that he needs it financially just as much. And it's all a little loaded here as well. Because before Sidney has returned to the office, Bobby has had a conversation with Mr. Parks conceding that he would be prepared to recast if it was the difference between making the film and not taking us back to the idea of integrity. Who has it and who doesn't. One of the things Bobby says to Sidney is it's about not burning bridges. Which I thought was a really interesting line. Especially about someone who now has a bridge named after them in the Bahamas. Fun fact. I've actually seen it. And while he poses the question. What is the point of having principles if you don't have a platform? Sidney shoots back. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? To which Bobby's quick and witty answer is the world, Sidney. Ultimately, their exchange still feels fueled by inherent differences in their perspective. Perspective that they have gained walking very different roads in society. Bobby, being a white man who even at the beginning of the play when he is talking about his eagerness to create this film with Sidney and, you know, recognizing his talent and wanting to support him on his career, still makes a few clumsy utterances. And eventually by the end of this play, has said to Sidney, the best thing that you can do to support the poor blacks is not to be one of them. And what I think is really brilliant about Ryan Kelly Cameron's writing is while a play like For Black Boys spoke more overtly about race. This one is still having very powerful discussions within the confines of this narrative and as far as it can go. But if not covertly, then clearly, but without saying it. We understand how frustrated and pained Sidney feels at every moment of this meeting. Huge. Part of that is because of the brilliant performance of Ivano Jeremiah. So Ivano plays Sidney Poitier, a hugely daunting role to take on because he was this extraordinary actor and he does a brilliantly crafted job. The voice is recognizable, the way in which he carries himself, it's indicative of the great man that he will go on to be. But also there is a sort of a scrappiness to him as well, in his youth, because this is Sidney Poitier before that success, as I've said. And there are some acutely painful moments of real palpable sorrow that he experiences while, you know, walking as far down this path as he is capable of. But alongside that, he is also charming. He's very funny. He's just a really compelling storyteller. Another brilliant creative choice. And this is something of a spoiler alert for the final moments of the piece. But we hear the voice of Sidney Poitier. We hear an Oscar speech made in the early 2000s when he was given an honorary Academy Award, during which he recounts the challenges of his early career. And we see Ivano Jeremiah, now alone on the stage, walking out of that office and continuing to walk onwards. In spite of the choice that he has just made, in spite of what he believes that he has given up by refusing to forsake his own values and his own integrity, he is still walking forwards. And we hear the sound of what it is, the future that he is ultimately walking towards. That's very powerful. An astonishing actor, very well cast as one. Oliver Johnston plays Bobby, a man whose visible nervousness accelerates throughout the thing. I wouldn't say that there are that many more layers to his character or to his characterization, but certainly the most interesting moments are those when he is alone with Mr. Parks and his character and his true nature feels that little bit more exposed, what he is willing to sacrifice and the compromises that he is willing to make, really. In self serving, Stanley Townsend then has the sort of unenviable job of playing Mr. Parks, but does so with a rich nuance and humanity, which is important. He's not just a hypersaturated, racist villain here. He is a real person. And it's important when, you know, looking at those aspects of society, that we understand them as real people. Otherwise there would be something quite false about it. But his behavior towards Sidney in his performance, in the direction in the writing. Writing is so fascinating because it's not just this sense of a manipulative bully. There is this force beneath it of him, on some level, genuinely feeling as though he is helping this young man. Entirely different to the sense that he may have convictions, that he may have values, that he has integrity. Mr. Parks is so incapable of understanding that that he becomes frustrated with Sidney and it moves to a place of anger. But at the beginning, though he is demeaning him and though he is trying to establish exactly who it is, that he isn't trying to put him firmly into his place, the place that Mr. Parks thinks he ought to stay, you do get the sense that in his own warped and bigoted way, he believes that he respects him on some level. Just another dimension of a very interesting piece of theater. It is currently running at the Apollo here in the West End. If this sounds at all interesting to you, please go and check it out and if you have already, as always, let us know what you thought of it in the comments section down below. Thank you for listening to this review. I enjoyed sharing it with you very much. Make sure you're subscribed to my theatre themed YouTube channel with the notifications turned on so that you don't miss any of my upcoming theatre reviews or make sure you're following me on podcast platforms. I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day for 10 more seconds. I'm Micky Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey subscribe.