After Sunday by Sophia Griffin – ★★★☆☆
After Sunday, a play written by Sophia Griffin and directed by Corey Campbell, is now on at the Bush Theatre. It is part of a collection of consecutive plays at the Bush Theatre in recent times that have a laser-sharp focus on raising mental health awareness among global majority characters.
The play is set in a hospital kitchen, where Naomi (Aimée Powell), an Occupational Therapist, has embarked on an ambitious and earnest journey to help men in their mental health recovery after being detained or hospitalised due to violent crimes. She has set up a Caribbean cooking group, inspired by her own memories of Sundays spent cooking up a storm with relatives, creating memories and letting the stress of the world melt away for one day each week.
She hopes to recreate that same energy for the patients and build a much-needed safe space in the lives of Ty (Corey Weekes), the confrontational and energetic youngest of the group; Leroy (David Webber), the oldest, who has spent the most time on the ward; and Daniel (Darrel Bailey), a relatively new arrival who, on the surface, appears timid and agreeable.
As author and professor of linguistics Deborah Tannen once wrote, ‘For girls, talk is the glue that holds relationships together. Boys’ relationships are held together primarily by activities.’
The kitchen is clean and tidy, but it is also reminiscent of a secondary school kitchen where food tech classes take place, right down to the labelled cupboards written in Comic Sans. The kitchen sits on a raised platform, and on a step down, around the outskirts, lies more storage filled to the brim with files and boxes – a clear visual reminder of all the baggage the patients carry with them, which has led to court trials, detainment, and elongated sentences.
For many of us, a kitchen is the beating heart of a culture of togetherness. In this 100-minute performance, which is arguably too lengthy, the kitchen has been flipped on its head to become a symbol of conflict and claustrophobia. The patients are learning technical skills, recalling painful memories through physical theatre sequences, and focusing on the day when they might be able to leave the suffocating confines of life between the hospital and the courtroom.
The same knives and pans used to prepare food also turn into weapons to threaten, strike fear, and attempt self‑harm as a distraction from distressing moments and memories. The well-intended cooking classes serve as a juxtaposition: they are both the magnet that holds together the patients’ shared experiences of enduring the constant grief of the lives they wish they had lived, and the magnets that repel each other’s wrongdoings and vulnerabilities, including causing rifts with their own families and futures.
Photography courtesy of Marc Brenner
After leaving the theatre, I was conscious of how many of us have jobs that don’t require the same mental vigour that essential workers demonstrate day in and day out. The play also opened up wider discussions about how we react to people who have committed crimes, and sparked my curiosity about the courageous individuals who facilitate others on their journey of rehabilitation.
Aimée Powell was the clear stand-out throughout, while Weekes, Webber, and Bailey’s performances were commendable but not exceptional. Powell’s ability to convey distress and calm between her personal and professional life with unmatched authenticity carried the show. Despite her engaging stage presence, it did feel as though the themes and storylines could have been wrapped up in a slightly shorter performance. Some scenes lagged, while others felt undercooked, making it difficult to be fully immersed from start to finish without an interval, although the intentionality of this directorial choice places the audience in a similar position to the characters, who also feel trapped in a never-ending loop.
After Sunday is a timely piece of theatre that resonates in the current climate, where NHS staff are constantly expressing concerns over feeling under supported, underpaid, and at times undignified. It was a sobering and hard watch at times, but that’s exactly why it’s important to show during the run-up to the festive season. It serves as a bleak reminder that while many of us begin planning aesthetic trips to see Christmas lights and markets, there are round-the-clock workers and patients who don’t get to experience that luxury or freedom.
★★★☆☆
By Nadia Mantock
After Sunday is showing at the Bush Theatre until 20 December.