PROMPT CORNER 12/2011:
American Trade
Hampstead Theatre, London NW3
Opened 8 June, 2011
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 UK 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.
Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights
reserved.
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