Review: ILFORD BOY at Donmar Warehouse

On a stylishly clean and pared-back set (by Peter McKintosh) with living room downstairs and an upstairs bathroom accessed by a skeletal staircase, the three grown daughters of a typical, dysfunctional Essex family, josh and bicker as they prepare to bid goodbye to their recently departed mother Eileen (Lindsey Coulson).

Told through superbly executed flashbacks, we see the immature girls Tillie (Ria Zmitrowicz), Jackie (Jodie McNee) and Ann (Charlotte Jaconelli) grow into their faces and fashions, their personalities and their positions within the family hierarchy. Acting as a gelling agent for past and present is Patrick (Craig Stein) with his bleached blonde hair and equally flamboyant and self-aware persona. He dances on cruise ships and has buried loved ones due to the AIDS crisis. He senses a kindred spirit in the show-tunes loving Ted (Leo Whitfield Harris making his professional debut) who lives with his mum Tillie amidst the bustling female household, but who wilts under the pressure his largely absent father brings to bear whenever he deigns to show-up. Boxing gloves at the ready, Ken (Gershwyn Eustache Jnr) is determined his son will toughen-up and silence his classmates’ poofter accusations. In so doing, he emulates his own father, assuming the paternal bully figure he’d always wanted to avoid becoming.

That there is an element of autobiography here, is in no doubt. Like Eileen, Wynter’s mother was of Romany/Italian heritage and his father Jamaican. The race elements are neatly rubbed and prodded further with the introduction of Ann’s Indian husband Raj (Aaron Gill), a forthright cab driver who aspires to owning nice things and guiding his wife and newborn son away from the worst excesses of Essex behaviour. Completing the cast is the largely silent, overlooked role of Trevor (Cary Crankson) who as Jackie’s marshalled and henpecked husband drops amusing and untimely clangers into conversations with aplomb.

ILFORD BOY is chatty, nuanced, playful, crass, foul-mouthed and the characters are well-honed and utterly relatable to a modern audience thanks to the sharp writing and Tim Sheader’s excellent direction. If you are looking for velvet drapes and bodices, this is not it. But there’s a whole lot more to enjoy here, not least Uncle Pat’s high-kicking dance routine which ends the first half.

With a running time of approx 2 hours 30 mins including interval, ILFORD BOY continues at the Donmar Warehouse until 28th November.