This Bitter Earth, Soho Theatre review: Billy Porter’s playful tragedy
This Bitter Earth review and star rating: ★★★★
This Bitter Earth is the UK directorial debut of Pose star Billy Porter, which in and of itself makes this an incredible LGBTQ show to catch this Pride month – but the play is about more than just its starry parts. It’s a surprisingly playful and immensely acted two-hander that asks decent questions about race and the ways we stand up for one another, by way of one interracial queer couple.
Those that aren’t here for Billy Porter will be showing up for Omari Douglas and Alexander Lincoln, two zeitgeisty queer actors who’ve done reams of decent work between them recently. Lincoln stars in cult LGBTQ rugby film Inn From The Side, and new Flare festival release A Night Like This, and Douglas’ lead role in Russell T Davies AIDS drama It’s A Sin made him one of the memorable TV faces from the lockdown era (he’s done bags of major West End roles since).
The premise of Harrison David Rivers’ play about one interracial couple sounds on the face of it like the sort of thing that should be staged fairly straight. White Black Lives Matter activist Neil is driven by protesting, while his black partner Jesse, a playwright, is more apathetic. The duo fight over their different perspectives on activism.
It’s testament to Porter, Douglas and Lincoln that two thirds of This Bitter Earth is actually comedic and surprisingly light-hearted. There is much tenderness and oodles of queer joy. Porter’s playful direction – the duo are forever chasing each other around and snogging – is paired with writer Harrison David Rivers’ snappy, fast-moving story.
Not all of Porter’s poppy direction works – a fourth-wall breaking bit where the duo climb through the audience seemed to be for no good reason other than to do something silly – but mostly it is compelling. Douglas and Lincoln fill the Soho Theatre’s large studio space with energy and fiery chemistry.
One issue, though. David Rivers’ script jumps too often between time periods. It’s not always clear exactly which era we’re in (the play goes between various stages of their relationship) and too much time is spent scene-setting rather than examining particular scenes in more detail. The pace and lack of time spent extrapolating certain ideas means at points you question whether this couple would actually fall out over different perspectives on activism. Is this really an authentic premise? Maybe, but sometimes the drama is too diluted to make the explosive bits feel believable.
The ending moves the story away from the poignancy of their fragmented relationship and into a focus on Jesse’s perspective, which feels a bit on-the-nose, and the production is occasionally a touch too heavy-handed with the video backdrops which takes away a bit from this fine pair.
Still, This Bitter Earth makes plenty of compelling arguments. It’s a meeting of some incredible minds. Fiery, audacious and vital.
This Bitter Earth plays at the Soho Theatre until 26 July