Retrograde Reviews round-up – West End

"A deserved West End triumph for one of Britain’s finest playwrights" (Apollo Theatre London 2025)

"Ryan Calais Cameron’s riveting play, based on a career-defining episode in Sidney Poitier’s life, is must-see theatre"

"This darkly comic three-hander – which sees Poitier poised to take the first black role of substance in a prime-time drama – is still a must-see piece of theatre that confirms the promise of its 36-year-old playwright’s runaway success For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy in 2021."

"In Kilburn, this looked like the kind of engrossing, well-made play that Shaftesbury Avenue is always crying out for – its snappy, American-located assurance doubly impressive given Cameron hails from South London. Amit Sharma’s production appears entirely at home at the Apollo."

"As well as showcasing Ivanno Jeremiah’s superb performance as Poitier, Oliver Johnstone and Stanley Townsend now take the pincer-like roles of screen-writer Bobby and studio lawyer Mr Parks - and find more detail, nuance and wit in them. In the interim, the play’s evocation of McCarthyist hysteria has also acquired yet more resonance."

"The piece brilliantly builds and builds, combining fact and fiction, and fusing jittery wisecracking worthy of Mamet into something nerve-shredding, with seismic ramifications about US culture, and who owns it."

"A triumph."

"A young British playwright joins theatre’s A-list" (Kiln Theatre London 2023)

"This account of a pivotal episode in the life of Sidney Poitier is so articulately defiant it bears comparison with The Crucible"

"Bringing to life an under-explored episode in the early career of Sidney Poitier, Ryan Calais Cameron’s Retrograde is the finest new play about a pivotal, still pertinent, moment in civil rights history since Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop."

"Displaying a crisp dynamic concision, in contrast with his current vignette-filled hit For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy, the 90-minute piece, capably directed by Amit Sharma and beautifully acted, propels him, at a stroke, to the front rank of our playwrights."

"Jeremiah is superb, suggesting charisma, wariness and a core resolve to stand steady, buckling as the implications are made clear: what price is a clear conscience if he can’t work at all, or utilise success to do good? We can’t help but think of cancel culture today but the piece – commendably even-handed and light of touch – rigorously honours its ’50s setting, attaining a peak of articulate defiance that recalls Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Yes, it’s honestly that good."

"Wickedly funny history lesson on Hollywood racism" (Apollo Theatre London 2025)

"Ivanno Jeremiah reprises his riveting performance as Sidney Poitier in this must-see thriller"

"Unfolding in real time in a tight and wickedly funny 90 minutes, Ryan Calais Cameron’s play dramatizes the moral challenge faced by Sidney Poitier at the start of his career in the racist, paranoid Hollywood of 1955."

"This West End transfer, with Ivanno Jeremiah reprising his supple and riveting performance in the lead role, also shows how prescient Cameron was. Poitier emerged in a mad, wicked period of American life. And it seems we’re right back there."

"The show isn’t perfect: as a pastiche of the films of the Fifties it’s necessarily schematic. The opening aural montage of eulogies to Poitier, who died in 2022, and the closing voiceover of his speech on receiving an honorary Oscar in 2002 feel stirring but manipulative. Still it’s a great history lesson that absolutely speaks to today. See it, definitely."

"Ryan Calais Cameron’s portrait of Sidney Poitier is electrifying" (Kiln Theatre London 2023)

"Ivanno Jeremiah delivers a performance of great strength and delicacy as the pioneering actor"

"A resolute, dignified young Sidney Poitier squares off against the paranoid forces of white 1950s Hollywood and the American political establishment in this electrifying drama from Ryan Calais Cameron. Unfolding in real time over 90 minutes it has the pace of a thriller and is written in a heightened, brutal form of classic, snappy movie dialogue. Amid all the zingers and putdowns, Ivanno Jeremiah delivers a performance of great strength and delicacy as Poitier."

"Retrograde, a rigorously constructed narrative drama, confirms him as a writer of great skill and talent with more than one stylistic shot in his locker."

"Compelling as it is, Retrograde isn’t perfect. Parks is overwritten as a character, shifting from hyperactive bonhomie to sinister threat..."

"Fun, cerebral and poignant" (Apollo Theatre London 2025)

"Riveting comedy drama focusing on a pivotal moment in the career of real-life iconic black actor Sidney Poitier"

"The writing depicts the 1950s zeitgeist in an elegant way. Offstage characters – Paul Robeson, Senator McCarthy, key figures influencing Sidney Poitier’s story – are all deftly woven in. There’s enough tasty historical bait to encourage the audience to dive deeper into the era and its seminal activists."

"... as we approach the climax, Jeremiah as Sidney gets to show what he can do in a series of deeply affecting emotional passages. As Parks drives Sidney to his decision point, Jeremiah’s performance sends ripples out into the auditorium."

"It’s a passionate work that ends with a clarion call to artists to hold to their principles and harness their potential for change – and it achieves that rare feat of being fun, cerebral and poignant."

"Ivanno Jeremiah is magnetic as Poitier" (Kiln Theatre London 2023)

"Compact biographical drama examines repression and racism in the golden age of Hollywood"

"Playwright Ryan Calais Cameron... draws these sparse biographical facts together to create a taut and tightly focused drama. His script is witty and briskly written, full of crisp verbal sparring that gathers speed and sharpness as it surges towards a defiant and deeply satisfying conclusion."

"With the story unfolding in real-time, director Amit Sharma starts building tension from the opening moments and never lets it dip."

"Ivanno Jeremiah gives a magnetic central performance as Poitier, depicting a figure of perfect self-possession and easy-going intellectual confidence that almost completely masks his inner righteous anger."

"Sidney Poitier faces a moral dilemma under Hollywood’s racist gaze in the brilliantly tense Retrograde" (Apollo Theatre London 2025)

"Writer Ryan Calais Cameron zooms in on a pivotal meeting in 1955 Hollywood"

"The bluster and wisecracks of 1950s American showbiz bubble through this witty biographical drama from Ryan Calais Cameron"

"Stanley Townsend is a joy to watch as this corporate bear, swiping down Bobby’s self-aggrandising nonsense with broad swinging one-liners."

"Jeremiah’s standout performance as the soon-to-be pioneering actor captures both his innate dignity and composure, and his queasy confusion as he realises he’s being misled and trapped at every turn in director Amit Sharma's perfectly pitched production. Calais Cameron’s ingeniously engineered script keeps shifting the ground Poitier stands on, as master manipulator Mr Parks gasses him up, then punctures him by reminding him of his “place”, before terrifying him with career-wrecking accusations of communism."

"When he finds his voice, Jeremiah's speeches get cheers from an audience won over by his everyman honesty."

"Ryan Calais Cameron cements himself as one of theatre’s most thrilling voices" (Kiln Theatre London 2023)

"Ivo Jeremiah gives a career-best performance as Sidney Poitier"

"Playwright Ryan Calais Cameron is cementing his status as one of our most exciting playwrights... his latest, a gripping drama about Sidney Poitier at the Kiln Theatre, confirms his talent. It may not quite reach the euphoric heights of Cameron’s last play, but the script is tight and pacey, with a career-best performance from Ivanno Jeremiah, last seen on stage in Constellations."

"Cameron’s 90-minute production may all take place against the warm tones and clean lines of Frankie Bradshaw’s office set, but there’s nothing static here, where the writing is as fast and funny as it is sharp and shocking."

"His [Sidney poitier's] big speech, in which he laments the pain of trying not to be the Angry Black Man in a world that warrants anger, took my breath away."

"Once again, Cameron has captured a rarely told narrative and brought it to the stage. Long may he continue to do so."

"Sharply skewers race and power in Hollywood’s Golden Age" (Kiln Theatre London 2023)

"This witty drama about Sidney Poitier’s rise to stardom confirms Ryan Calais Cameron as the playwright of the moment"

"Ryan Calais Cameron is the playwright of the moment... this new drama, based upon a true event in the early career of Hollywood Golden Age film star Sidney Poitier, is set to cement his reputation. It’s always a cause for celebration when British theatre can welcome a strong new voice with something fresh and urgent to say."

"Amit Sharma’s poised production delicately traces the subtly shifting power dynamics between the trio, as well as having fun with Cameron’s sharp writing."

"Toxicity meets integrity in exceptional Sidney Poitier drama" (Kiln Theatre London 2023)

"Ryan Calais Cameron’s terrific three-hander dramatises a meeting in 1955 Hollywood, mapping the dilemmas that actors of colour still face"

"There are fantastic rat-a-tat exchanges between the three men, almost Mamet-like in their speed and savagery. Ryan Calais Cameron’s writing is sabre-sharp, every demotic and period inflection perfected, every threat hewn and glimmering with intelligence."

"... he is fast proving himself an exceptional talent."

"The direction by Amit Sharma matches the tension in the script and we feel it rise from the minute Poitier enters the room."

"Ryan Calais Cameron’s superb thriller about a young Sidney Poitier now feels alarmingly timely as it hits the West End" (Apollo Theatre London 2025)

"... to assume that’s all that this play’s going to be – a pastiche of a fast-patter period piece – is to underestimate Calais Cameron who, after all, smashed the West End with his beautiful play For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy. Because in walks Sidney Poitier, the guy who’d go on to become the first Black man to win an Oscar, and then the whole thing gets richer and tenser, with big speeches that borrow the cadences and blueprints of the golden age, becoming a play that feels both completely contemporary and like an instant classic."

"The cast of three smash it... But it’s Ivanno Jeremiah as Poitier who is completely transfixing. He’s one of those actors that has proper presence, captivating the moment he steps on stage."

"There’s all this talk of ‘values’, of ‘the American way of life’, coded language which hasn’t really changed. It’s never explicit – Calais Cameron is too smart for that – but what you can hear in those speeches about McCarthy and HUAC is one dark, scared and paranoid time calling to another."

"In his quickfire new McCarthy-era play, For Black Boys… creator Ryan Calais Cameron speaks his mind" (Kiln Theatre London 2023)

"His new play is utterly different: socially engaged, skilfully recreating a historic encounter and driven by rapid-fire dialogue."

"Opening in the week of Harry Belafonte’s death, Amit Sharma’s fleet production of Retrograde strikes with particular force."

"Retrograde is not nuanced: it is forthright, near-polemical. It is a polemic we need."

"Sidney Poitier is embroiled in blacklisting and betrayal in Retrograde" (Kiln Theatre London 2023)

"The dramatist, who wrote the beautiful, poetic For Black Boys..., here moves in a completely different direction, creating a gripping period drama about the grubby intersection of racism, rightwing paranoia and power."

"... Amit Sharma’s slightly larger-than-life staging plays out with the tension of a thriller, surfing the shifting power dynamics in the room."

"Ivanno Jeremiah brings great poise and nuance to Poitier, gracefully conveying his dignified charisma."

"Retrograde is a burning-fuse play about the movie biz" (Kiln Theatre London 2023)

"Playwright Ryan Calais Cameron superbly recreates the fast-gun patter that gave old movies their verbal colour."

"It’s a shame about the overly righteous ending. But there’s dialogue of the first order and it’s a joy to hear."

"Zingers fly in a snappy Sidney Poitier drama" (Apollo Theatre London 2025)

"Based on a true story, in Ryan Calais Cameron’s play the great actor is asked to betray his friend for the sake of ‘American values’. This West End transfer crackles"

"... gripping, inspiring and funny too."

"Poitier is played with panache and punch by Ivanno Jeremiah"

"Is there grandstanding in the script? A bit. But the evening earns it not just with the righteousness of Poitier’s perspective but also with the wit of the writing and playing."

"The habitually excellent Townsend ensures that Parks is not just appalling but alluring too. That gives spice to Poitier’s defiance in a tussle, fuelled by some of the zingiest repartee in London, that shows history on the pivot."

"A poignant tale of the Hollywood witch hunt" (Kiln Theatre London 2023)

"Homing in on the early career of Sidney Poitier, the young playwright has devised a brisk, if occasionally overwrought, account of how the actor faced down pressure to conform during the anti-communist witch hunt of the 1950s."

"Ivanno Jeremiah gives us a rangy, self-confident Poitier with a ready smile and the colourful dress sense of a jazz musician. But, we soon discover, there is a shaft of steel beneath the easygoing exterior."

"Amit Sharma’s direction isn’t always subtle — there’s an overtone of melodrama at times."

"Ivanno Jeremiah is tremendous as a poised young Sidney Poitier in the latest from rising star playwright Ryan Calais Cameron" (Kiln Theatre London 2023)

"If Parks and Bobby are at heart shallow, cipher-like characters, Poitier is both terrifically written by Cameron and performed magnificently by Jeremiah..."

"Amit Sharma’s production is a rousing and propulsive 90 minutes that I could absolutely see making Cameron a mint by transferring to Broadway with a big-name Hollywood actor in the Poiter role - it screams ‘star vehicle’."

"I think ultimately there are a couple of problems with it, that don’t stop it being a gripping piece of theatre, but do hold it back from being as good as it could be... The biggest issue, though, is that the play’s ending feels like a fudge."

"‘Retrograde’ may well end up being a stonking hit. I don’t think it will be regarded as Cameron’s masterpiece. But it effortlessly seals his reputation as a major talent."