Adult Supervision

Sarah Rutherford’s comically poignant play about racial attitudes and preconceptions is brilliantly thought provoking. There is a strong cast that will cause you to run a gauntlet of emotion, causing the audience to roar with raucous laughter one moment and a moment later, somberly contemplate individual personal creeds and prejudices.

Adult Supervision skilfully explores the increasingly socially delicate topic of “beige Britain” through the eyes of four women, played artfully by each respective actress.

It is the night of the 2008 US elections where four friends have gathered for Election Night. Natasha, played by Susannah Doyle, is the somewhat highly-strung hostess is who is a white former lawyer who being unable to have children of her own, has adopted two Ethiopian children. Natasha has thrown a small party for the other “mothers of children of colour” from the posh small private school her children attend in order to garner some non-white friends for her offspring and to watch the outcome.

As the ladies splurge on “Obamatinis” truths and secrets start to flow throughout the evening as inhibitions are shed and the thin veneer of middle-class suburbia begins to slip. Amy Robbins is inspired as Mo, a brash and deliciously bawdy mother in a mixed race couple with an ironically insightful grasp of the nuances of inter-racial undercurrents even in modern society.

Angela, a glamourous mother (heavily pregnant with child number two) and the only black member of the cast we interact with is played by Jacqueline Boatswain. Who, as well as Mo, was invited only for the reason that they have mixed race children. This leaves Izzy, brought to life by the superb Olivia Poulet. Izzy is the excruciatingly gauche best friend of Natasha , who is described as not having one drop of anything “exotic” in her family and whose children are described as being “so white they’re transparent.” .

Jez Bond’s production engages and maintains the audience from start to finish, embroiling us in the evening’s gradual but steady descent into mayhem of tense outbursts and disembowelled teddy bears. By the end of the night, aside from pricked consciences and social disillusionment, this play helps to tactfully deals with issues about racial tensions and class snobbery in a wonderfully challenging yet entertaining manner.

Adult Supervision is currently playing at the Park Theatre, London until 3rd November.For more information and to book tickets, please visit:
http://parktheatre.co.uk/

Ashlea Williams