Gripping, challenging and thoroughly entertaining
HOME Manchester continues its run of excellent productions with Kemp Powers’ One Night In Miami.
It was a show that brought the multi-ethnic, cross-generational audience to its feet with hollers and whoops, not only for the curtain call but throughout the show.
One Night In Miami takes place in a downtown Miami motel room, on 25 February 1964, as Cassius Clay (soon to become Muhammad Ali) is crowned the new heavyweight champion of the world and celebrates with three of his closest friends – civil rights activist Malcolm X, American football icon Jim Brown and soul star Sam Cooke.
Kemp Powers imagines what might have happened
in that room on that night: “I decided to write a play that allows an audience to be a fly on the wall for a discussion between these titans, when the cameras were off and the guards were down.”
What he has created is a tough-talking, in-yourface drama about the prejudices and injustices of the U.S.A. in the 1960s – when even the music charts were segregated, with white stars like the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan populating the extremely lucrative pop charts while black music was represented by the much less financially rewarding rhythm and blues charts.
One Night In Miami is a challenging and thoroughly engaging drama of quick-fire, passionate discussions, debates and arguments.
Christopher Colquhoun’s Malcom X is a brilliantly conveyed amalgam of pious anger, frustration and fear (he had recently received death threats from the Nation of Islam).
Cassius Clay is a convincing combination of naivety and bravado skilfully carried off by Conor Glean.
Miles Yekinni’s Jim Brown exudes the confidence of a black NFL star about to become a Hollywood actor.
Oseloka Obi and Andre Squire convincingly portray the contradictions surrounding the rising menace of the Black Power Movement and Nation of Islam.
Very much the star of the show is Sam Cooke, brought to life by the excellent Olivier Awardwinning Matt Henry (Kinky Boots, The Voice UK finalist).
He gives show-stopping, renditions of some of Sam Cooke’s iconic songs with an especially moving A Change Is Going To Come (he was soon to record it shortly before being murdered in controversial circumstances).
I can fully endorse Matthew Xia’s statement, ‘It has been an absolute joy to delve into this moment in time with the exceptional company of actors and design team. Its been a long time coming.’