Writer Ryan Calais Cameron enjoys a West End transfer with ‘Retrograde’, a play dealing with a pivotal moment in pathbreaking Oscar-winning actor, Sidney Poitier’s life, with echoes for today’s artists…
By Sudha Bhuchar
A RETRODRADE step – To go back on the progress that has been made.
I love my solo trips to the theatre, partly because I can appease myself by believing that this is not procrastination, but a legitimate ‘artist date’; immersing myself in great work will surely inspire my own creative endeavours?
‘Retrograde’ by Ryan Calais Cameron, does much more than that.
It opened my eyes to a pivotal moment in the career and character of Sidney Poitier, reimagined by Ryan, and I left fuelled by Sidney’s fire, his ‘homicidal rage’.
How much it must have taken for him to have broken barriers and become the iconic actor that he was. But I am getting ahead of myself.
‘Retrograde’ follows Ryan’s hugely successful ‘For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy’ and has exploded onto the Apollo theatre, following sell out success at The Kiln (in Kilburn) where it premiered, directed by Amit Sharma.
In a contained ‘pressure cooker’ 90 minutes, it explores the moment when Sidney Poitier is summoned to Mr Parks’ (NBC’s studio lawyer played by Stanley Townsend) office where he is to sign the contract for the part of a lifetime, written by his friend and ‘ally’ Bobby (Oliver Johnstone).
Already cited as a ‘breakout talent’, after appearing in ‘Blackboard Jungle’, Sidney, played with restraint and class by Ivanno Jeremiah, is ready to sign on the dotted line and immerse himself in the role that promises to be multi-faceted and propel him into stardom.
“We’re going to see all of you, not just Eyes and Teeth”, promises Parks. But there’s a price to pay – Sidney would need to make a small public statement…
A denouncement of his friend Paul Robeson. The play is set in the mid-fifties, in the era of McCarthyism.
The US had created the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), charged with identifying Communist threats to the US and placing people’s names on a ‘Blacklist’. These included charismatic Black celebrities monitored by the FBI; like Paul Robeson and others involved in social and racial justice movements.
In the words of Poitier…
“It drove me wild that these men (the FBI) could see Red but couldn’t see Black. I was being accused of being sympathetic toward men I did respect tremendously…Here I am in a culture that denies me my personhood.”
Perhaps because Sidney spent his childhood in majority-black Cat Island and Nassau in The Bahamas, he had never experienced racism and fully inhabited his ‘personhood’ by the time he arrived in the US as an adult.
“I just saw myself as a man. My mother and father’s son.”
Sidney had been a premature baby and not expected to survive. A soothsayer reassured his mother that, “This baby will survive. Your son will walk with Kings. He will carry your name all over the world.”
Maybe this gave him the courage to stand in his skin and refuse to accept the colour bar. His dreams took him beyond glass and concrete ceilings and to the stars.
The play explores a moment when the stakes are high in Sidney’s career and life. He’s financially broke with a wife and two kids, another on the way. The prospect of landing a central character after playing ‘the good little Negro’ is enticing.
Parks uses this to twist the knife.
“The best thing you can do for the poor blacks is to not be one of them. A man without provision is a man without purpose. You don’t walk away from a network. Values don’t put food on the table.”
As Sidney looks to Bobby for support, the temperature rises between the friends as we witness the complexity of the conflict, between aspiring for personal success and standing up for broader values of equality and representation.
Will Bobby stay loyal or betray Sidney at the crucial hour?
Recalling the time when Paul Robeson sang at the US/Canadian border in May 1952, when his US passport had been confiscated due to Robeson’s allegiances with Socialism, Sidney recounts Robeson’s resolute refusal to sign an oath denouncing communism.
(WikiCommons)
Can Sidney be the courageous giant of a man that Robeson clearly is? I am confident that we all know the answer, so it’s not a spoiler to share the decision Poitier makes at the denouement. As he declares to Parks: “You are afraid I want to take something. You got nothing I want.”
Poitier’s lines in this taut three-hander are particularly memorable and have stayed with me.
“There is a movement, and I don’t want to miss that. I do not wish to be on the wrong side of history.”
I grew up loving Sidney’s towering and charismatic presence, long before I had any aspirations of a life as an actor.
I was inspired by his films like ‘To Sir with Love’, ‘In the Heat of the Night’ and ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?’
Now looking back on my 42-year career, which continues to be a struggle for representation and visibility, I am in awe of what he achieved in the face of such huge barriers.
In my career to date, there have been many obstacles. Forging my own path as an actor and theatremaker has been an imperative and the only way to gain agency.
I am proud to have shared some of that journey with Amit Sharma, as well as a birthday, albeit years apart! An instinctive actor, Amit’s presence in Tamasha’s plays, ‘child of the divide’, ‘A Fine Balance’ and ‘The Trouble with Asian Men’ was always unique and inspired. It’s wonderful to see his career bloom and his vision as a director and artistic leader unfold in such an exciting way.
They play’s contemporary resonance is stark. At a time when we are experiencing so many culture wars and retrograde steps to the progress that has been made in equity and representation, the play reminds us that we have been here many times before. Men like Sidney are rare but he inspires us to look beyond our despair at the slow pace of change and inhabit the fullness of who we are as artists and in our lives.
I urge you to catch ‘Retrograde’ during its limited run at the Apollo Theatre. (See details below).
Meanwhile, I will be revisiting Poitier’s catalogue of work and writings and sharing it with my sons.
All pictures: ©NimaxTheatres/MarcBrenner
Sudha Bhuchar is an actor, writer and theatremaker. She appears in the BBC Series Virdee currently available on iPlayer and is the author of an interactive children’s book, ‘A Rainbow for Amala’ and her play, ‘A Picture of Health’ was produced by Theatre of Debate.
Sidney Poitier was the first black actor to win a Best Actor Oscar in 1964 for ‘Lillies of the Field’
Listing
‘Retrograde’ by Ryan Calais Cameron, until June 14, at Apollo Theatre. Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 7EZ
More info/tickets: here
