88. American Trade - RSC at the Hampstead Theatre

American Trade was the third and final instalment of the RSC’s Hampstead residency and sadly I can’t quite shake the feeling that it’s lucky the long ensemble had New York to head off to as it would have been a shame to end such a marvellous tenure with a disappointing, uncelebrated and geographically peripheral end. As unfortunately American Trade suffered from the same problem as its two predecessors – interesting productions, strong performances but weak writing. Though not awful - like the other two plays, I thought there was great potential here but it may have needed longer to develop.


The main problems seemed to be structural – there was a feeling that this didn’t quite know what point it wanted to make and although it’s breakneck pace gave it a stylistic stamp, it needed more pauses and introspective moments. I didn’t get a strong enough sense of what the characters desired or feared and the dynastic struggle, in particular, didn’t have space to bloom. I suspect the obvious comparisons between the Move of the Play and Ugly Betty’s Mode were intended in some sense as short hand, a way for us to fill in the gaps, but I don’t think it worked. In particular I felt that the two main antagonists - Pharus (Tunji Kassim) and Valentina (Sophie Russell) – needed a scene together, a way to lay out their struggle more clearly. As it was it left one of the central pillars of the play feeling a little underdeveloped and shaky.

The play also needed a greater sense of threat and intimidation. Jules, despite some stirling work by Clarence Smith, never quite convinced as a real danger. It wasn’t apparent why he, above anyone else, was an insurmountable problem for Pharus (no innuendo intended). We had seen him get out of worse situations and I couldn’t quite understand why this one was any different at the end. Which was the last big problem for me, I think the play would have benefited greatly from a more coherent and more dramatic conclusion. As it stands the ending felt rushed and incomplete and I was fully anticipating another twist or two before it finished (I at least thought it would turn out that Ragiv was working for Valentina).

But though these are fairly major issues, I don’t think they’re unsolvable and I enjoyed the play enough as I was watching it to believe that it might be worth that effort. I laughed (loudly) throughout and though a fair bit of it was provoked by the twin weapons of familiarity and shock (there are some truly startling costumes), I also think the writing was genuinely funny. With lines like “I’m not a fucking bee” and “I... he dances at the other end of the ballroom” emerging as favourites. I also found that I enjoyed having a play that absolutely teemed with gay characters, without their “queerness” being the main issue – it was refreshing. On top of which I liked the fun, brightness of the set and thought several of the performances were excellent – especially Tunji Kasim, Sophie Russell, Simone Saunders and the always jointly superb James Traherne and James Tucker.

An entertaining evening, with lots of laughter, that just needed more depth.