Prompt Corner review of American Trade

What was intended to be a comparably boisterous evening, American Trade, misfired fairly unambiguously. I don’t agree that it’s a bad or dull play; it just isn’t to any significant degree good or interesting. I fear that Tarell Alvin McCraney may have been praised too much, too soon: his

début with The Brothers Size was a sensation, and I was in a minority in rating its semi-follow-up In The Red And Brown Water at a comparable level, but first Wig Out! at the Royal Court and now American Trade suggest that he may have been heartened by that early reception into a voice more natural to him, one which is more exuberantly gay but also much less substantial. I hope he will soon prove me wrong.

Written for Theatre Record .