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Co-produced with performance charity Access All Areas, the Royal Court’s ‘Imposter 22’ is the culmination of a five-year project to engage a group of seven neurodivergent actors and have them devise and perform a play, which is directed by Hamish Pirie and written by Molly Davies.
The story is a shaggy dog murder mystery, following a group of neurodivergent pals as they try to get to the bottom of the death of Joe, a neurotypical (albeit depressed) hanger-onner to their group. The tone is jokey and somewhat meta: there is a splash of polemic, but largely the vibe is a relaxed archness about the prejudices of the neurotypical.
The performers are of varied ability. Cian Binchy and Housni Hassan are effective comics, and Stephanie Newman has an acidic deadpan that’s well deployed in her long scene opposite erstwhile ‘Hamilton’ star Jamael Westman, the show’s only neurotypical actor, who plays a homeless person called Danny who the pals recruit to play the late Joe. They're all singular performers, but despite sparks of anarchic magic, cramming them into a semi-conventional murder mystery feels like it sometimes puts pressure on them to offer more nuanced performances than they can deliver.
Pirie is a seasoned director, but despite agreeably vivid design from Cai Dyfan, the show might have benefitted from more technical polish to aid the storytelling. It’s stilted and rambling and there are some very odd choices, like a scene where it looks like the cast is be about to give us a punch-the-air moment by karaoke-ing to the Beastie Boys and then just… don’t. It’s right that Westman isn’t the star, but he feels chronically underused.
There are lots of good and/or thought-provoking scenes, and of course, having seven neurodivergent performers playing seven neurodivergent characters gives ‘Imposter 22’ an authenticity that’s undeniable. I think it’s reasonable to say that a project like this should be judged on different criteria to the average theatre show, and if it sounds interesting you should totally go and see it. But I think it’s also reasonable to acknowledge that taken as a stage comedy it’s quite possibly in too rough a state to be enjoyable to the casual punter.