Review: DEEP AZURE at Sam Wanamaker, Globe

Stuart King 17 March, 2026, 16:26

In a week during which we have seen Michael B Jordan win the Best Actor Oscar, I was reminded of another young black talent Chadwick Boseman, star of the blockbuster Black Panther movie and himself a posthumous Oscar nominee for his performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

Aminita Francis as SK Good, Imani Yahshua as SK Evil and Jayden Elijah as Deep in Deep Azure c. Sam Taylor

Back in 2005 Boseman penned the drama DEEP AZURE currently playing at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe. Through it, he honoured his friend and Howard Uni classmate Prince Carmen “Rocky” Jones Jr who was shot multiple times and killed in September 2000 by a black police officer who later claimed mistaken identity and self-defence but who worked for a police force noted for its history of brutality and a lack of accountability for wrongdoing. In the play which is delivered with a blend of Shakespearean verse and hip-hop stylings, Azure (Selina Jones) grieves for her lost love Deep (Jayden Elijah) who has been killed in a shooting, although the circumstances aren’t immediately clear. Thus we are primed for a Hamlet-esque tragedy in which Ophelia’s madness becomes Azure’s bulimia, and a scene-setting chorus appear first as bizarrely costumed robotic commentators and later as a marching band come cheerleaders.

In some ways the play feels a little too loose and disparate at the beginning, but as the rhymes begin to land more fully, under Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu’s direction the second half tidies many strands. Most notable of these clarifies the part and motives which Deep’s close friends Tone (Elijah Cook) and Roshad (Justice Ritchie) played in his demise. There are unhappy and unsettling truths here, which become all the more poignant with the repeated appearances of Deep as a benign and almost holy apparition.

Despite the tragic elements (and some weirdly surreal and incongruous tangents involving Rasputin at the Tsarist court and an emerging butterfly), the chorus are used to good comedic effect — on one particular occasion as pigeons perched on the gleaming silvery half-moon spheres which are moved about the stage and are ranged through archways up to the ceiling in Paul Wills’ design which leans heavily into luna symbolism.

In many ways the blending of so many ideas really shouldn’t work as well as it does and with a running time of just shy of 3 hours including interval, the piece would certainly benefit from a tighter narrative thread, but overall this was an energised and earnest effort delivered by a thoroughly engaged cast and the end result held my attention and interest throughout. Due to popular demand the original run for DEEP AZURE has been extended and will continue until 11th April.