Review: MORENO, Theatre 503

Hard on the heels of the excellent Red Pitch (currently showing at the Bush Theatre) comes another award-winning play set in the testosterone flooded world of men's football, this time of the American variety. But where Tyrell Williams' play was local, with race only a tangential issue, Pravin Wilkins takes us into the locker room of an NFL franchise as Colin Kaepernick's taking a knee protest sparks arguments inside and outside sport, inside and outside the USA.

When Luis Moreno joins the team, he's all about the money, the Insta-likes and the yardage, but he's feeling his knee on the way back from an ACL injury and the swagger hides professional insecurities. Danny Lombardo is the star QB, turning down the kind of megabucks contract Moreno has taken for a better chance to add to his three Superbowl rings - for him, it's all about the winning. Zeke Williams is the old hand, the team captain, who manages defense and egos with the same cool head, but is on a Lebron James like journey of autodidactic education about race in the USA. Cre'Von Garçon doesn't mind being called 'Creole', doesn't mind much in fact, and still can't quite believe that he's made it to the biggest league of them all.

It's a good set-up, since, even if the characters are a little too representative of types, it allows the play to mirror the debates that Kaepernick energised. We get the old 'I'm just a footballer - what do I know?' (since largely sunk by the Black Lives Matter movement), the impact of black and brown gaslighting by white culture and the consequent role of false consciousness explaining black men's quiescent acceptance of their status on a field doing what white men demand (again) and the true costs of taking a public stand (and not taking one).

Each of the ensemble cast act their parts (their types really) with skill and sympathy. Sebastián Capitán Viveros has to travel the furthest, Moreno going all in with his anger as his Latino mother's workplace is graffitied and Trump's wall rises. Matt Whitchurch travels least distance, his Lombardo sticking to his guns that it's all about the team, as many, but not all, white players did.

Joseph Black, who even looks a little reminiscent of Lebron, gives a dignity and authority to Zeke, the man all teams need, but his eyes are being opened and he realises that he has to do more beyond his leadership role in the organisation. Hayden McLean may lend Creole an easygoing character, but the second year pro is learning fast and sees and thinks more than he lets on - in ten years time, he may be the next Zeke.

Though its heart is in the right place, Wilkins is more interested in the themes than the drama, so the issues burrow much deeper into our minds than does the plot. Long before the showdown, we know which way the decisions will break, so there's little tension and there's a better story to be told about what happens next to the two lads and two men than the one we get. Director, Nancy Medina, also insists that almost all the dialogue is shouted (really, really shouted), so the quiet conversation that concludes the play, as Zeke and Moreno ponder their futures, may be more seductive as a result.

Perhaps this is a rare example of a play about contemporary issues that works better the less you know about the background, which probably will be the case for most who buy a ticket. For those of us who do know some of the detail behind the headlines, the positions adopted feel a little too glib and the impacts a little too benign. There will be many plays that look back on the seismic events of 2016 - 2021 in the USA in the years to come - maybe this one is just a bit too soon to provide the perspective that canvas requires.

Moreno is at Theatre 503 until 26 March

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