We round up the reviews for Chadwick Boseman’s 2005 play, playing in London until the 11th April.
Broadway World: ** “Everything considered, this is a disappointing production. While the play is stylistically substantial, with its use of poetry and ethereal harmonies, its contents and their delivery fall short. The multiple moments of reckoning (Azure’s pain, Deep’s mother’s harangue, Tone’s addresses against the system) are swallowed by the baffling tonal shifts as well as the overly extended and irrelevant interruptions.”
The Stage: **** “Chadwick Boseman’s vivid verse drama inventively tackles themes of police brutality, racism and resilience.”
WhatsOnStage: **** “The plot teeters on the edge of melodrama, particularly in the second half, and the piece is too long (running at nearly three hours with an interval). But it contains riches. Most fascinating of all is the portrayal of Deep (a gentle Jayden Elijah) not just as a prince (there are constant echoes of Hamlet) but also a saintly figure, on the verge of entering a seminary, committed to visionary good works. “What you say is berserk/Is God’s work,” he says, at one point.”
London Theatre.co.uk: *** “The adventurousness of Boseman’s language is immediately arresting. You clock his gift for rhyme – “if you are death’s angel sent to kill / then do what you will” – alongside a capacity for the blunt, harsh reality of the situation at hand. “I want the truth, whatever it costs,” we’re told after the interval, as the play builds towards an unsparing recreation of the incident reported at the start.”
The Upcoming: ***** “As if it needed repeating, the play spotlights the chasm left in the wake of Boseman’s loss, as an actor, playwright, and empath with an acute understanding of social issues. Deep Azure is a triumph of profoundly resonant, female-centred storytelling.”
The Guardian: *** “It is complicated in its non-naturalism, but that is no bad thing. The play is packed with ideas, and there is a surrendering pleasure in submitting to its strange logic and poetic richness.”
Time Out: *** “Still, Deep Azure is far more than a curio by a famous guy – it’s a work of powerful, if occasionally meandering poetry, and if we probably have Black Panther to thank for the fact that it’s been dusted off 21 years on, then that’s why he’s a superhero, I guess.”
The Reviews Hub: **** 1/2 “Reviving the late Chadwick Boseman’s work, written prior to his global celebrity, to the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse could be seen as an unearned leap into the echelons of great playwrights. Instead, this production of Deep Azure does immense honour to a script that feels more at home in Shakespeare’s Globe than anything else written since the bard’s death. A true achievement that must be seen by any theatre lover.”
London Unattached: **** “Deep Azure’s epic length is the play’s biggest challenge. At two and half hours, it has time to explore all the minute details of its various narrative strands. While this expansive approach sometimes permits interesting contextual details, it often dilutes narrative impetus. Some scenes, like Azure’s meeting with Deep’s mother, feel beyond the play’s scope.”
To book tickets visit: https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on/deep-azure/