Review: MILES. (Southwark Playhouse Borough)

Review by Dan Ghigeanu

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Music, like all living art forms, is in a constant state of evolution. What is celebrated as mainstream today was not so long ago dismissed as niche, disruptive, or incomprehensible. Genres that now fill stadiums and streaming playlists were once conceived in cramped rooms, smoky clubs, and restless minds, often at great personal cost to their pioneers. MILES., written and directed by Oliver Kaderbhai, is a powerful meditation on that creative sacrifice, on the price paid for innovation, legacy, and immortality in sound. Following a critically acclaimed, sold-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe, the production now transfers to Southwark Playhouse Borough, where it continues to resonate with urgency, intimacy, and remarkable emotional depth.

For those who love music that speaks beyond words, music that carries memory, pain, joy, and longing in its very texture, MILES. offers something profoundly affecting. It does not attempt to function as a conventional biographical play. Instead, it interrogates the act of creation itself, asking what it truly means to make something timeless, and what is lost in the process. The result is a piece that feels both deeply personal and expansively universal.

The production is a two-hander, set primarily in a New York recording studio. Jay Phelps plays Jay, a contemporary jazz musician searching for his own sound, as well as a series of other characters encountered along the way. Benjamin Akintuyosi takes on the formidable task of portraying Miles Davis, alongside the role of Elwood Buchanan, one of the early influences in Davis’s life. Jay, wrestling with creative stagnation, finds himself in a dreamlike dialogue with Miles, who guides and challenges him by revisiting formative moments from his own past.

What unfolds is a fluid, impressionistic journey through Miles Davis’s early life and artistic development. The narrative drifts between eras and emotional states, blurring the line between memory, imagination, and mentorship. This dreamlike aesthetic is one of the production’s greatest strengths. Rather than presenting a chronological retelling of Davis’s life, Kaderbhai allows the story to move associatively, driven by music, mood, and emotional truth. It mirrors the improvisational nature of jazz itself, where structure exists, but freedom reigns.

The storytelling is deeply engaging. Through carefully selected moments, the play reveals Davis not only as a musical genius but as a young man consumed by hunger for knowledge, for recognition, for mastery. We witness his relentless pursuit of new sounds and techniques, his willingness to break rules, and the brutal lessons he learns along the way. Importantly, the production does not shy away from the realities of race and systemic oppression. The challenges Miles faces as a Black artist in mid-century America are woven into the narrative with clarity and force, grounding the play in its socio-political context, one that, disturbingly, remains all too familiar.

Jay Phelps delivers a standout performance that operates on multiple levels. As a musician, his trumpet playing is nothing short of electrifying. Each musical interlude feels purposeful, charged with emotion and narrative intent rather than existing as mere embellishment. The music becomes a language of its own, expressing what words cannot. Phelps’s singing brings warmth and vulnerability to the piece, often serving as its emotional heartbeat. Yet it is his acting that truly elevates the performance. As Jay, he captures the frustration, self-doubt, and yearning familiar to any artist grappling with their own limitations. In his additional roles, Phelps demonstrates remarkable versatility, subtly differentiating each character through physicality, rhythm, and emotional tone.

Benjamin Akintuyosi, however, is the undeniable centre of gravity in MILES. His portrayal of Miles Davis is a tour de force, raw, intimate, and exquisitely controlled. Rather than relying on imitation or surface-level mannerisms, Akintuyosi captures the essence of Davis, the sharp intellect, the simmering anger, the vulnerability beneath the bravado. His Miles is magnetic and volatile, capable of tenderness and cruelty in equal measure. Through him, we see a man both shaped and scarred by his genius, acutely aware of the cost of his ambition. Akintuyosi’s performance carries the emotional weight of the production with extraordinary precision. He allows us access to Davis’s inner world without ever over-explaining it, trusting silence, gesture, and rhythm to do the work. 

Visually, MILES. is a triumph. The design, led by Ellie Wintour, is cohesive and evocative, seamlessly blending set, costumes, and props to create a world that feels both grounded and ethereal. The recording studio becomes a liminal space, a place where past and present collide, where memory and creation coexist. Colin J Smith’s projections further enhance this atmosphere, bathing the stage in a soft, old-film aesthetic. Together, these elements create a visual language that perfectly complements the production’s themes.

Oliver Kaderbhai’s direction and writing are, quite simply, exemplary. His decision to tell this story through a dreamlike lens is inspired, allowing the play to explore complex ideas about legacy, mentorship, and artistic identity without becoming heavy-handed. The transitions between scenes are fluid and musical and every creative choice feels intentional, in service of a clear and compelling vision.

MILES. is not just a play about Miles Davis, it is a play about all artists who dare to push boundaries, to challenge convention, and to search for truth in their work. It is about the conversations we have with our idols, real or imagined, and the questions we ask ourselves when striving to leave something meaningful behind. This is a production that dazzles not through spectacle, but through honesty, craft, and profound respect for the art form it celebrates. MILES. is essential viewing for music lovers, theatregoers, and anyone interested in the cost and the beauty of creation.

MILES. plays at Southwark Playhouse Borough until 7th March. Tickets from https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/miles/ 

Photos by Colin J Smith