Noughts & Crosses – Hackney Empire
Noughts & Crosses arrives on stage with traces of something oxymoronically freshly familiar. Adapted from Malorie Blackman’s landmark novel, this production takes a story many already know and makes it feel sharper, stranger, more physical, and more painful in the flesh.
Set in an alternate society where racial power is reversed, the play follows Sephy and Callum, whose relationship unfolds in a world determined to divide them.
The production’s strongest moments are visual and physical. The first hanging scene is spectacularly staged, with the use of red creating beautiful and horrific image. The physical theatre is some of the best I have seen in a long time, especially in the sequence of the bombing, where movement and violence seem to collapse into one another. With only ...
