Review: Noughts & Crosses at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

9 Jul

⭐⭐⭐ (Three Stars)

Dominic Cooke’s stage adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s 2001 novel Noughts & Crosses, now playing at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, offers a thought-provoking, if uneven, dive into a dystopian reimagining of 21st-century Britain. In the play, society is split by skin colour into two distinct groups: the light-skinned Noughts who occupy a lower rank in society, and the dark-skinned Crosses who hold the position of power. Under Tinuke Craig’s direction, this production tackles powerful themes of racism, privilege and forbidden love, but struggles at times to do so in the most engaging way.

The core of the story, the relationship between Callum (Noah Valentine), a Nought, and Sephy (Corinna Brown), a Cross, is most successful when exploring their deep-rooted friendship. Both actors capture a believable youthful energy, but their romantic connection feels underdeveloped, making the emotional stakes in the second act less resonant than they should be.

The play’s script is clearly aimed at a teenage or young adult audience, with a heavy reliance on exposition to clarify plot points. While this may help those unfamiliar with the source material, it often comes at the cost of subtlety, particularly in the first act. The second act, meanwhile, feels overlong and could benefit from tighter editing to maintain momentum and audience engagement.

The staging choices yield mixed results. The absence of wings in the play’s set at the open-air venue leads to a distracting directorial decision: actors waiting in full view of the audience for their next scene, sometimes watching the scene taking place and sometimes simply staring off into the distance. This detracts from the scenes in progress, pulling focus at key dramatic moments. However, the staging of the TV news broadcasts is particularly effective, with the reporters entering the home of the people viewing the news on their TV.

Visually, there are some strong elements. Joshua Pharo’s lighting design is especially effective, particularly during the news broadcast sequences and fight scenes, which bring an added intensity to the action. Colin Richmond’s set is stark and industrial, making clever use of metal platforms to suggest different levels and spaces, though the minimalism sometimes makes it difficult to place scenes without contextual cues. The costumes, also designed by Richmond, while subdued in a palette of blues and greys, subtly reinforce the societal divide, with Noughts in casual wear and Crosses in smarter, more tailored outfits.

Ultimately, this production of Noughts & Crosses delivers a faithful adaptation of its source material, but in packaging it so squarely for a younger audience, it sacrifices some of the emotional complexity that could have made it more powerful. It has moments of real impact, but rarely reaches its full potential.

Noughts & Crosses runs at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre until 26th July 2025.

Tickets are available here: https://openairtheatre.com/production/noughts-crosses