Retrograde review: Ryan Calais Cameron cements himself as one of theatre’s most thrilling voices

The playwright Ryan Calais Cameron is cementing his status as one of our most exciting playwrights. His haunting For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy is making waves in the West End, and his latest, a gripping drama about Sidney Poitier at the Kiln Theatre, confirms his talent. It may not quite reach the euphoric heights of Cameron’s last play, but the script is tight and pacey, with a career-best performance from Ivanno Jeremiah, last seen on stage in Constellations.

Poitier, who died last year, is well known for his achievements: his positioning as one of the last stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, the first Black actor to win an Academy Award. But in Cameron’s play, Poitier (Jeremiah) is a star on the rise, having just been cast in a TV movie written by his friend Bobby (Ian Bonar). It’s a part free of racial stereotypes, a shock for an actor who’s “not even Harry Belafonte Black! He’s Black-Black!”

Amit Sharma’s production, set in the Fifties, plays out in real time, as Sidney is called in to see NBC lawyer Mr Parks (Daniel Lapaine), ostensibly to sign his contract. There’s an uneasy faux-paternalism from the company bully, who is soon questioning the actor on his political leanings and threatening to blacklist him from Hollywood. History tells us that didn’t happen, but Retrograde has a way of wrong-footing the audience at every turn. Cameron’s 90-minute production may all take place against the warm tones and clean lines of Frankie Bradshaw’s office set, but there’s nothing static here, where the writing is as fast and funny as it is sharp and shocking.

Jeremiah’s stellar Sidney is a smooth operator, his voice a rich, Old Hollywood purr. Through his voice and physical stance, he conveys Sidney’s pride - even as the actor realises it’s hard to make it in the biz with morals still intact. His big speech, in which he laments the pain of trying not to be the Angry Black Man in a world that warrants anger, took my breath away.

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As the loathsome Mr Parks and snivelling Bobby, Lapaine and Bonar support him well, even though their characters at times feel a little too cartoonish. Parks is an unlikeable sleezeball, while Bobby is the white saviour who says things like: “I am the Blackest white guy you know” (“Don’t ever say that again,” Sidney replies, deadpan). Still, their performances are strong; credit to Lapaine, I’ve rarely left a theatre hating someone as much as his Mr Parks.

In the play’s final moments, Jeremiah stands alone on the stage as the real Poitier’s voice plays out. It’s a moment of stylised stillness after the political drama, but one that roots us in the reality of Poitier’s story. Once again, Cameron has captured a rarely told narrative and brought it to the stage. Long may he continue to do so.

‘Retrograde’ runs at the Kiln Theatre until 27 May