An earnest look at social injustice offers more questions than answers
They Don’t Really Care About Us was the latest from 4AM Productions, a company that has made itself at home at the Hope Street Theatre over the last year and brings together a mix of professional and amateur talent for successful sold-out runs.
Told through flashbacks, fantasy sequences and procedural scenes, its themes of institutional racism and misogyny were hammered home from the off.
When up-and-coming young poet Vanessa (Nina Price) is brutally murdered, her friend Dinesh (4AM founder Sab Muthusamy) ends up in the frame.
Set in the early 90s against the backdrop of the Stephen Lawrence killing, hardened detective Josh Miller (Kru Lundy) dismisses what he sees as an open-and-shut case, with no time for his new younger, female partner or her concerns about Dinesh’s innocence.
The audience sees Vanessa unexpectedly bludgeoned during a house party with a group of friends and her younger sister. A creepy mask on the killer was effective in heightening the tension; the murder weapon as an empty plastic water bottle, not so much.
From an antagonistic stop-and-search on the way to the party to attacks from white supremacists in custody, it’s clear that there is only one reason Dinesh is targeted. But who really did it?
The play was a well-intentioned and sincere piece of work, with a worthy message (inspired by Muthusamy’s real life experiences of racism), but lacked an attention to detail and clarity that would have really helped it hit home.
Solid performances from cast members including Paul Philip Ryan as friend/ suspect George and Abi Tyrer as wild child sister Caitlin stood out as ones to watch.
The piece toyed with intriguing asides and red herrings, yet tended to waste dialogue repeating more familiar tropes and simplistic ideas. And ultimately, the climactic court scene just took too long to pack its punch. A stronger dramaturgical hand could help shape They Don’t Really Care About Us into the work it has potential to be.
