Following the struggle of new residents Sihle and Bonolo to adjust to their new neighborhood of Stillwater, A Good House is a brilliantly tense and funny examination of race and community politics. The sudden appearance of a makeshift shack is what drives the action of the play, as Stillwater’s white residents try to get Bonolo and Sihle to become the faces of the plan to evict the squatters.
This is a truly masterful piece of writing. Amy Jephta’s script is intricate and layered, and where the most obvious tension is between Stillwater’s black and white residents, this never becomes reductive. For example, Jephta layers in class politics between Sihle and Bonolo – in Sihle’s words Bonolo has always been “bougie as fuck’. These and many other layers prevent an argument heavy script from feeling as though it is simply serving the writer’s argument.
The tension of this environment is embodied in the script’s neck-breaking shifts from realism to non-naturalism and back again, a real challenge for a director which Nancy Medina handles excellently. The staging is made to feel effortless and unobtrusive, which allows the quick pace of the writing to flow as it should.
Where the characters at times can feel almost artificial, this feels deliberate. In Stillwater’s claustrophobic environment, where serious tensions are buried under liberal politeness, no-one can be themselves and genuine emotional connection is possible. This seems to reflect the play’s distinctly South African lens. The recent history of apartheid, and the much criticised ‘Rainbowism’ of post-apartheid politics, make this artificiality feel deeply appropriate. The importance of the shack as a symbol and the question of ‘land grabs’ are similarly rooted in South Africa.
This script is made to shine by a fantastic cast. Scott Sparrow and Olivia Darnley are perfect as Stillwater’s ‘power couple’, Chris and Lynette, with Sparrow in particular finding an excellent grinding tension to Chris’ character. Robyn Rainsford and Kai Luke Brummer are similarly excellent as an insufferable young couple. The standouts, however, are Sifiso Mazibuko and Mimî M Khayisa. They have an electric chemistry together, managing to feel extremely close to each other and then suddenly miles apart. Special mention must go to Mazibuko whose depiction of the overly accommodating Sihle is masterful. He finds a repeating smile for Sihle that manages to say a thousand different things and is at once hilarious and heartbreaking.
This is all bolstered by a fantastic set design by ULTZ. The various living rooms of Stillwater’s residents are brought to life by two sofas and a changing cast of props, brought into place by the cast. The effect is to produce naturalistic settings that retain a marked sense of impermanence. Even as we enjoy Bonolo’s decor, we can see past its edges and will soon witness its casual dismantlement. This evokes the façade that is Stillwater’s ‘community’ perfectly. The shack itself manages to embody everything that its characters project onto it. It can be comedic and quite charming, yet its odd mechanical shifting seems to contain some of the quiet malevolence that the white characters, especially Andrew, ascribe to it.
If there is a fault to this production, it comes at the end, which tries to find an ambiguous ending. While avoiding a simplistic conclusion feels like a great decision, it is hard not to feel that there might have been a more powerful ending that would do justice to the richness of the show as a whole. Yet if this play is not perfect, it is incredibly close to that and is easily one of the best things I have seen on stage recently. Unbelievably funny, provoking, and full of expertly crafted awkwardness, it is a show I would recommend in a heartbeat.
Reviewer: Ralph Jeffreys
Reviewed: 17th January 2025
North West End UK Rating:
Rating: 4 out of 5.
