Review: Safe Space (Chichester Festival Theatre)

Review by Stephen Gilchrist

⭐️⭐️⭐️

In the context of Jamie Bogyo’s new play, inspired by events at Yale University in 2017, the Safe Space refers to students being ‘safe’ in a college, named after and celebrating slave owner John C. Calhoun. On the one hand, Calhoun was a product of his time, as were other politicians and slaveholders, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, and was known for his defence of slavery. On the other hand, he served in Congress, both in the House of Representatives and Senate, and as a cabinet member, as secretary of war and of state, and served as vice president twice, under two different administrations.

Calhoun was also a Yale alumnus, and in 1933 Yale named one of its new residential colleges after him, a decision that became increasingly controversial over time. After a significant debate, Yale University announced in 2017 that Calhoun College would be renamed Grace Hopper College, she being a pioneering computer scientist and naval officer. So, one of the themes of this piece is whether a person who behaved in a way which is controversial and could not be countenanced today, should be erased entirely from public consciousness, or are we throwing babies (with otherwise distinguished accomplishments) out, with the bathwater?

These are the events, in the dying months of Obama's presidency, which form the background to the narrative, and which colour the manner of the debate in which  advocates for the pro-side and con-side are able to destroy friendships by moral grandstanding, class, heritage ambition, or, indeed, a failure to come down on one side or the other.

Jamie Bogyo, the author, plays Connor, a white student who is a roomie of and apparent best friends with a rather more serious Black student, Isaiah, played by Ernest Kingsley Jr. There is a petition circulating to rename the college. Connor is a conservative declining to join this fight. Isaiah see-saws and is uncertain. Meanwhile Omar, Ivan Oyik, a wise cracking Black student responsible for the petition, leads the charge. Annabelle, played by Céline Buckens, who is in a sexually unsatisfactory relationship with Connor, is best friends with Bola Akeju’s Stacey, an ambitious Black student who hides her strong desire for advancement from her bestie. The interplay between the characters also makes points about feminism, and patronising attitudes. The nature of the friendship between the characters morphs and transfigures through the play’s two and a half hour run time. Sexual partners change and friendships fracture and resolve.

The convoluted relationships are set against the college a Capella glee club - the Whiffenpoofs - which emerged in 1909 and claims to be the first such a Capella group. Both Connor and Isaiah are members, and the text is punctuated with some well-sung material, particularly by Bogyo, who was the first actor to play Christian in the West End production of Moulin Rouge! The Musical. Kingsley opens the show with a take on Nat ‘King’ Cole’s “Nature Boy,” performed as a sort of ‘flash act’ in white tie and tails, reminiscent of The Nicholas Brothers. This is a characterisation of Black performers in the early part of the last century as perceived as “acceptable” by a white audience. The number finishes and the costume is ripped off, making for an effective starting point.

It may be that the significance of this glee club would pass by a UK audience. Students have been singing on American campuses since the colonial period, and such groups have since become staples of college life. To be honest, I struggled somewhat to understand its relevance to the story being told, but I assume it was intended to reflect the conservative nature of US academic institutions, yet also the racial integration presented as progress in the 20th and 21st centuries. The divisive nature of the argument about whether controversial memorials should remain standing is set, by the author, against a solid historic musical backbone of the institution.

Jamie Bogyo knows of which he speaks. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art for three years, before going on to major in playwriting at Yale University, and his time there is reflected in his writing. There are some amusing moments, but the show does wear its heart on its sleeve, not always a bad thing, though often the serious aspects of the play seem discordant against the comedy.

The performances are all solid and convincing though none seemed exceptional. Roy Alexander Weise, MBE, directs confidently on the fluid Minerva stage against excellent settings by Khadija Raza which effectively emphasise the story's location, time period, and mood with its moving platform of wood panelled student rooms and hallowed halls, and a statue of Calhoun, likewise on a platform which is exposed and withdrawn from sight during the proceedings.

I would really like to be more enthused about this play. It is ‘worthy,’ and I don’t mean that in a disparaging way, but the juvenile antics of the college characters discourage the audience, I felt, from empathising or identifying with any of the personalities. More importantly, the denouement does not really provide any answers to the questions posed by the premise of the piece. Namely, what is a Safe Space?

Safe Space plays at Chichester Festival Theatre’s Minerva Theatre until November 8th

For tickets and information visit https://www.cft.org.uk/events/safe-space

Photos by Helen Murray