Review: FOXES by Dexter Flanders at Theatre503 5 - 23 October 2021

‘It demonstrated just how good this writer and this cast could be’ ★★★

There was an awful lot to admire about this show. It dealt bravely and honestly with dilemmas confronting good people – with homophobic bile in the mouth of compassionate, kind, Christian people. With a family that loves you so much it smothers you. With fighting the feelings that define you in order to take responsibility for your mistakes, and the tension that causes, and the anger that comes from that tension. Lots and lots of important, honest discussion, embodied by honest, brave acting. But oh my stars, the scene changes. The blackouts, the prop shifting, the moves from one setting (represented by a naturalistic box set) to somewhere altogether different represented by the same box set with the duvet turned over. Every time the story started to move, every time there was energy and drive and purpose, there was a pause long enough to kill the momentum, making the actors kick-start the show time after time. It was so frustrating! So many good things compromised by directorial decisions that undercut them. The writing was super-conscious of rhythm – vibrant passages of rap; musical, vital Jamaican patois and Black street slang. The writer, Dexter Flanders, has a brilliant ear, but the language never flowed for long. 

Doreene Blackstocke played Patricia, a loving mother who ran her house like an army barracks. Michael Fatogun was Daniel her son, masking a volcano of feelings under the mask of a street-smart bad boy, with his ever-so-butch friend Leon played with great delicacy by Anyebe Godwin. Daniel’s pregnant Muslim girlfriend was played with great sympathy by July Namir, and, in a chronically underwritten part, Tosin Alabi played Daniel’s worldly-wise, upwardly mobile baby sister. 

I could have done without the time lapses projected onto the walls of a flat, I could have done without the expressive dance routines in which Daniel wrestled with nightmares. I could have watched the scene between Tosin Alabi and Anyebe Godwin, in which all they talked about was trainers and all they meant was everything else, for hours. Subtle, poignant, immaculate use of the side eye and the furrowed brow, acting of great delicacy, great truth, and very funny. It demonstrated just how good this writer and this cast could be. I’m certain they will go on to do great work. Sadly, this wasn’t it. 

Images: Courtesy of Adam Yemane

Defibrillator and Theatre503 in association with The Actors Centre present

FOXES 

Theatre503

5 – 23 October 2021

Written by Dexter Flanders

Directed by James Hillier

Box Office: https://theatre503.com/whats-on/foxes/ 

Company website

http://www.defibrillatortheatre.com/

Reviewer: Chris Lilly read Drama at Hull University in the 70s, stage-managed a bit, spent 8 years as a community arts worker in Tower Hamlets, did the occasional tech job, then taught in East London and participated in shedloads of community theatre. Since retiring from teaching, he has acquired an MA in 'Theatre' from the University of Surrey and indulged a passion for live performance anywhere in London courtesy of his Freedom Pass. Twitter @starsshinestill