There are no Shakespeare plays in Drew McOnie’s first season running the Open Air Theatre. But Tinuke Craig – the theatre’s new associate artistic director – tackles this old RSC adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s dystopian YA novel as if it were Shakespeare, bringing vigour and gravitas to the story of a Britain where Black ‘Crosses’ rule and white ‘Noughts’ serve as the underclass.
It’s not an unreasonable approach. The story of how lifelong friends Sephy (a privileged Cross) and Callum (a poor Nought) fall for each other with disastrous consequences has more than a hint of Romeo & Juliet to it.
But I’m not sure how well it all stands up. Ultimately the source material is a 24-year-old kids’ novel, as seen through Dominic Cooke’s faithful 18-year-old adaptation. At worst it feels both clunky and dated.
Clunky, because while yes, having Black people oppress white people is clearly an ironic way to comment on the fact that historically it’s been the other way around, the society of the story is so hysterically racist – apartheid South Africa level, at least – that it feels like it lets actual institutional British racism off the hook somewhat.
Dated, because racial discourse has changed over the last quarter century and there are bits of Noughts & Crosses that now play out uncomfortably close to a modern-day white grievance fantasy. I don’t think it’s going to attract a white-power audience, but I do think its story of how Callum and his family are radicalised into violence by Cross oppression now chimes uncomfortably closely to the rhetoric of the ethno-nationalist white far right, which was surely not the intent.
Where the recent BBC adaptation heavily updated the material, Cooke’s 2007 version is a fairly literal run through the original story. A fresh adaptation was surely in order here.
Enough moaning. Whatever the faults of the material, Craig directs forcefully, stylishly and brings clarity to a sprawling story. Having the other characters of Sephy and Callum’s ethnicities hover in the background behind them, looking on intently even when they’re alone, is a superb touch: the scrutiny of their lives in this segregated society feels relentless. It’s decently acted with Corinna Brown particularly good as Sephy: she keeps her pecker up against all odds, a bright light in a dour world – even if the subplot about her getting into her boozy mum’s wine supply feels a bit ‘hey kids, let’s talk about issues’.
It’s fine, but it can be simultaneously true to say that Noughts + Crosses is a modern day classic and that it needs more than this elderly adaptation if it’s to work on a major stage in the future.
