Skip to main content Skip to footer site map
Review: UNDER HEAVEN'S EYES, VAULT Festival

Review: UNDER HEAVEN'S EYES, VAULT Festival

Part memorial to the lives lost due to racially motivated brutality, and part plea for change, Tajah’s piece is as educational as historically relevant.

Review: UNDER HEAVEN'S EYES, VAULT Festival The footage of George Floyd's murder at the hands of a Minneapolitan police officer went immediately viral at the height of the pandemic in May 2020. Other than a rightful series of protests around the world, it fanned the sparks of a broader, vital conversation on the discriminatory behaviour against Black and Brown communities. To this day, nearly three years after Floyd's death, videos of brutal acts against minorities on both sides of the Atlantic keep surfacing in an inexcusable display of systematic institutional racism.

Writer Christopher Tajah examines the deep apprehension between the Black communities and the law enforcement through the eyes of Michael Livington, a middle-aged Black man from East London. Stuck at home during lockdown, he gives a historical account of the fight against prejudice in the last three centuries as he records a message for his children, who are studying in the States. Under Heaven's Eyes is an urgently necessary piece. Backed with facts and figures, names and ages, heritage and causes, it has the weight of a lecture.

Tajah's impressive research is mediated by exciting charisma. He is decisive in his exhortation and pleading in his suffused anger, but never preachy. "It has to stop" echoes throughout as he details how discrimination permeates every aspect of a Black person's life, from their social sphere to the workplace. Examples of racial profiling drawn from his own experience coexist with accounts of the tragic murders at the hand of American police officers. Descriptions of the frustration, fear, and shame of stop-and-search practices carried out in Britain tie the two countries together in an intelligent, eloquent monologue.

His educated and reasoned stream of consciousness is, rightfully, mildly uncomfortable, but he goes easy on the audience, everything considered. A few poetry breaks slow down the relentless pace of his inquiry, but they also add mileage that could be shaved off, as does the final portion from the perspective of a Laotian in 1930s Leeds. It takes the public out of it slightly, altering the energy and displacing the attention from the socio-political aim of the play.

Ultimately, it doesn't have too much of an effect on the production as a whole, as its core point is a resolute wake-up call. Part TED Talk, part memorial to the lives lost due to racially motivated brutality, and part plea for change, Tajah's piece is as educational as historically relevant. While it might not be perfect, it should be mandatory viewing, especially in schools. Like his character says: "Education is our best hope".

Under Heaven's Eyes runs at the Network Theatre as part of VAULT Festival until 12 February.



Review: THE DEAD CITY (DIE TOTE STADT), London Coliseum Photo
Annilese Miskimmon directs an arresting new production of Korngold's cult operatic meditation on melancholy

Review: MARJORIE PRIME, Menier Chocolate Factory Photo
Jordan Harrison’s 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist is a reflection on mortality that doesn’t dare to go into the depths of the matter. It ends up being rather stagnant philosophically and anthropologically, but Dominic Dromgoole’s latest production is a delicate take. Running at 85 minutes on paper but around 70 in reality, the piece’s greatly sophisticated performances and sleek look save it from its redundant nature.

Review: WASTED, Lyric Hammersmith Photo
Running at around 50 minutes, it’s snappy and positively Gen-Z in pace and subject. Fernandes crafts a script that wanders from deliciously colloquial to slightly expository, but remains solid throughout. Mundane conversations about parties and cleaning rotas act as the foundation for the pair’s bond, which is bound to be tested and tried once Jacob’s actions are revealed. At its core, it’s a story of friendship and loyalty camouflaged as a crime drama exploring the stigmatisation of sexual violence.

Photos: First Look At English National Operas THE DEAD CITY (DIE TOTE STADT) Photo
See production images for the English National Opera's The Dead City (Die tote Stadt), running 25 March - 8 April 2023.


From This Author - Cindy Marcolina

Italian export. Member of the Critics' Circle (Drama). Also a script reader and huge supporter of new work. Twitter: @Cindy_Marcolina

... (read more about this author)

Review: MARJORIE PRIME, Menier Chocolate FactoryReview: MARJORIE PRIME, Menier Chocolate Factory
March 26, 2023

Jordan Harrison’s 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist is a reflection on mortality that doesn’t dare to go into the depths of the matter. It ends up being rather stagnant philosophically and anthropologically, but Dominic Dromgoole’s latest production is a delicate take. Running at 85 minutes on paper but around 70 in reality, the piece’s greatly sophisticated performances and sleek look save it from its redundant nature.

Review: WASTED, Lyric HammersmithReview: WASTED, Lyric Hammersmith
March 25, 2023

Running at around 50 minutes, it’s snappy and positively Gen-Z in pace and subject. Fernandes crafts a script that wanders from deliciously colloquial to slightly expository, but remains solid throughout.

Review: CONTEMPT, VAULT FestivalReview: CONTEMPT, VAULT Festival
March 19, 2023

While the writing is gripping and Gabrielle Nellis-Pain’s performance is excellent, there’s something missing. Catherine’s colleagues are ancient ghosts through the hallowed corridors as she puts on a sleazy, raspy voice to portray them against her well-spoken main character.

Review: YOU ARE GOING TO DIE, VAULT FestivalReview: YOU ARE GOING TO DIE, VAULT Festival
March 19, 2023

You are going to die. It’s a certainty, but it’s also the title of the latest play by This is Not Culturally Significant writer Adam Scott-Rowley. Performed entirely naked, You Are Going To Die is a show about everything and nothing. You can read as much or as little as you wish in it. What does it deal with? We’d love to know - we came out of it with more questions than answers. It feels like a social experiment or an impenetrable piece of performance art. It might just be simply throwing stuff at a wall to see what sticks.

Review: FREAK OUT!, VAULT FestivalReview: FREAK OUT!, VAULT Festival
March 19, 2023

Coin Toss Collective are an exceptionally creative young company. Freak Out! highlights a problem that wouldn’t cross the mind of the average British person who lives in the inland. They deliver an amusing, chaotic farewell to East Anglia. Who would’ve thought that a show about coastal erosion would be so cool!