Naima Khan reviews an exceptionally sophisticated play by Tarell Alvin McCraney
Tarell Alvin McCraney is an enviable playwright and his latest work, Choir Boy at Royal Court poses as philosophical a challenge to its audience as it does to its characters, a group of American prep-school students at an all-black Christian school. They struggle with the realities of having a gay choir leader whose ambition and intelligence as well as his sexuality pose a challenge to their own identities and the school's very traditional financial structures.
His group of distinct characters fall into a few neat categories, the jock, the sidekick, the athlete and the goody two-shoes (all brilliantly performed) but he does give them an impressive sense of brotherhood, spirituality, a loyalty to and pride in their school and an acute awareness of the opportunities it provides them. With this, he makes a point of revealing how many of these boys require a scholarship to afford the tuition. He also cruises through the dialogue and its Southern rhythms, slowly but surely stirring up a visceral response from his audience to the A cappella music that he uses to accentuate the quietest moments of his otherwise clarion clear play.
Although some aspects of the structure are familiar – there's a philosophy class to the tune of Alan Bennett's History Boys and a teacher (the remarkably David Burke) who wants them to sing for each other à la Glee – what McCraney covers is far fresher, sharper and even today, still tantalisingly ambiguous.
At one point he has his protagonist, Pharus (Dominic Smith), question the commonly accepted social history of Negro Spirituals. In doing so, he makes me consider the gaps in the prescriptive, historical nature of scripture and our need to have conviction in the larger purpose of something rather than take from it what we can apply today. “When I don't know for sure,” says Pharus, “I don't make things up to fill it” and although his specific argument is brief, poorly researched and comes from an adolescent with his own point to prove, he is ultimately trying to find a way to belong in a community that historically and religiously can't welcome him. It's one scene and it speaks volumes.
So does most of this play which, in its own sly way, covers language, community, religion and economics. Dominic Cooke's directorial choices also hone in the most disturbing responses to Pharus' mere presence. He has headmaster Marrow (Gary McDonald) simply gesture that Pharus need not be so expressive with his wrist and it's cutting. Ultz' design is a bit lacking in atmosphere but otherwise this is an exceptional new production. 
Choir Boy runs at Royal Court Theatre until 6th October
Image: Kwayedza Kureya (Junior), Khali Best (AJ), Dominic Smith (Pharus) Aron Julius (David) by Simon Kane
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