Slave Play

Slave Play description

Welcome to the old MacGregor Plantation where a group of people are about to experience life-changing sex therapy, like going back in time, to a place where the Old South is alive and well. This iconic, controversial and ground-breaking play is the most Tony Nominated play of all time.

Reprised by Slave Play’s original Broadway cast

Slave Play is due in the capital for summer 2024, a strictly limited run with most of the original Broadway cast reprising their roles. The all star cast involves Fisayo Akinade (The Crucible, Heartstopper), Kit Harington (Game of Thrones, True West), Aaron Heffernan (Brassic, Atlanta), and Denzel Washington's daughter Olivia Washington (I Am Virgo, Breaking).

They are joined by James Cusati-Moyer (Six Degrees of Separation, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Chalia La Tour (The Good Fight, Elementary), Annie McNamara (Orange is the New Black, Iowa), and Irene Sofia Lucio (The Americans, Wit,) also reprising their roles from the original Broadway production.

The creative team includes design by Clint Ramos, costume by Dede Ayite, lighting by Jiyoun Chang, and composition and sound design by Lindsay Jones.

A three act play with sexually explicit scenes and adult themes

This three-act play by Jeremy O. Harris comes with very strong language and explicit adult themes, exploring race, trauma, sex, power, and the complexities of interracial relationships. Through the theme of psychoanalysis, it reveals how slavery still impacts the mental states and relationships of black people to this day.

The plot follows three interracial couples experiencing ‘Antebellum Sexual Performance Therapy’ to try to rekindle the black partners’ sexual attraction to their white other halves. Directed by Robert O’Hara it delves deep into the Zeitgeist of twenty-first century North America to reveal how racism persists.

More Tony nominations than any other production

Jeremy O. Harris actually wrote Slave Play during his first year at the Yale School of Drama, an impressive feat for someone so young. October 2017 saw it produced at the Yale School of Drama as part of the annual Langston Hughes Festival. Debuting in 2018 in an Off-Broadway New York Theatre Workshop with staging directed by Robert O'Hara, it opened on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre in 2019, nominated for a Best Play Lucille Lortel Award.

Winning a legendary 12 nominations at the 74th Tony Awards, there was a Broadway remount in 2021. Now it’s due in the West End for summer 2024. The run sees a return to the play’s famous ‘Black Out’ nights where, for two performances, tickets will be exclusively for audience members who identify as black.

Playing at Noel Coward Theatre (venue info)