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Written by Jess McGee
On Thursday 24th February, I was invited to review Proud, staged at the King’s Head Theatre, Islington. Proud is a new play by Bren Gosling, directed by Marlie Haco. I was really intrigued and excited to see this new production, as I had previously given Lovesick, also directed by Marlie Haco, 5 stars and a glowing review.
Proud is a three-man show, with Taofique Folarin playing Roland, a liberated openly gay man, who falls for Amir, a much younger refugee working as a street sweeper, performed by Andrei Maniata. Kaine Hatukai plays Roland’s troubled teenage son, Gary. The three characters have their own difficulties and personal tragedies, as they come to terms with who they are and learn to understand one another more as the story unfolds.
The play is described as a ‘queer love story, illuminating the traumatic impact of racism, homophobia and displacement’, and with the amount of incredibly difficult themes Proud explores, I would agree with that statement. Although the story behind Proud began in the early 2000s, many of the themes discussed such as war, forced migration and religion felt incredibly relevant, poignant and impactful.
The play centres around a basketball court, with the characters playing this at both the beginning and end, which was a clever way to bind the characters together and symbolise power struggles and relationships evolving. The significant level of detail in props and the set was really clever – an example of this would be that the basketball was rainbow patterned, to represent the queer elements of the story throughout.
I felt Proud was an extremely inclusive, representative and important story to tell, and it was clear to see that the actors had put in a lot of effort to understand their characters, however my only criticism would be that at some points it felt like the characters back-stories slightly lacked in authenticity, which lead to some of the long pauses a bit lacking in dramatic effect.
Overall, I enjoyed Proud, and would award it 4 stars. It is credit to its success that the original run has been extended, and you can now book to see the play up until 19th March 2022. Tickets can be purchased here.
Production images courtesy of Toby Mather
CentreStage 