Daddy @ Almeida Theatre (30 March-9 May)

This Jeremy O. Harris’ play, which he wrote to get into grad school, explores the emotional vulnerability that not having a father figure can evoke.

Andre, a wealthy, white art collector with a sumptuous Bel Air home latest sexual conquest is a young up and coming African-American artist by the name of Franklin. The latter is immediately drawn into this new swanky lifestyle and moves in with his older sugar daddy.

This does not sit well with Franklin’s straight laced Bible quoting Mother, who confronts Andre and her son as to the nature and depth of their relationship.

I will be your father figure. Put your tiny hand in mine.
I will be your preacher teacher. Anything you have in mind.

Danya Taymor, a director on the brink of firmly establishing herself as no longer emerging, but a sought after interpreter of new work said in a recent interview that: Daddy” is a melodrama. It starts slow and then gets more and more and more as all the tools that we’re using come into play. Then in the third act, we can explode them all out.

She continues: “I think that melodrama is a style, and so we put in those clues so that the audience can understand, okay, this is not realism. You can let your imagination go. It’s also about voyeurism and observing other people and how we are when we’re alone versus when people are watching”

In this Bel Air tale of love and family, intimacy is a commodity and the surreal gets real.

Daddy, 30 March-9 May, Almedia Theatre, For tickets and details visit: https://ebonyonline.net/event/daddy/

Photo credit: Marc Brenner