Tracey Scott Wilson’s 2003 play The Story makes its UK premiere at the National Theatre with Black Panther star Letitia Wright leading the cast. Critics are divided on the newsroom drama: some find it a sharp, provocative indictment of media and race while others saw a convoluted thriller that never quite convinces.
Clint Dyer (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) directs the UK premiere of The Story, Tracey Scott Wilson’s 2003 newsroom drama at the National Theatre. Black Panther star Letitia Wright plays Yvonne, an ambitious Black journalist whose too-good-to-be-true scoop about a gang murder starts to unravel. She is joined by Lorraine Toussaint as her hard-bitten editor Pat and Ashley Thomas as skeptical colleague Neil.
Reviews are genuinely split on this one: some found Wilson’s play moving and while ambitious, a touch outdated. Others felt the play didn’t quite deliver on the premise’s promise despite a strong cast.
The verdict: The Story is a bold, well-acted play that critics agree raises urgent questions about race, ambition and the media; but reviews disagree on whether the play itself actually answers them.
Critic’s comparison
| Publication | Rating | The Key Takeaway |
| The Standard | ★★★★ | A funny and provocative melodrama, elevated by lead performances. |
| The Stage | ★★★ | A stinging indictment of US media culture, though the script doesn’t quite deliver its promise. |
| BroadwayWorld | ★★★ | A promising, still-timely premise let down by uneven pacing and an overdirected staging. |
| The Independent | ★★★ | A fascinating watch whose neatly crafted ambiguity ultimately frustrates. |
| WhatsOnStage | ★★★ | Fizzes with relevant ideas, but sprawls into a series of point-paragraphs rather than a narrative. |
| TimeOut | ★★★ | Gripping at first, but tips into over-scaled melodrama that never quite works as a play about journalism. |
| The Times | ★★ | A convoluted thriller whose twists don’t add up to much. |
The reviews: what they loved about The Story
- Lorraine Toussaint’s performance as Pat: screen veteran Toussaint’s turn as Pat was widely seen by critics as the strongest element of the production. The Times called her performance ‘weighty,’ and The Standard commented that Toussaint and Wright’s performances were ‘coruscatingly powerful’. The Stage also praised how her ‘formidable exterior’ reveals increasing emotional vulnerability as the play progresses.
- Ashley Thomas’s take on Neil: The Times found that his performance ‘adds authenticity,’ while BroadwayWorld called it a ‘strong, often comic turn.’ The Stage noted his role ‘builds in importance as the plot develops, organically shifting from comic relief to become the play’s moral centre.’
- The play’s willingness to go there: It’s a strong play from Wilson, and she’s unafraid to tackle the heavy subject matter. The Standard praised the play as it ‘wades boldly’ into prejudice within the Black community as well as between races, pointing to the script’s probing of Yvonne and Jeff’s relationship and the degree to which they ‘fetishize each other’s skin colour and background, with savage humour’ as one example. The Stage called the work a ‘stinging indictment’ of US media culture.
- Design and staging details: The Stage singled out Anna Fleischle’s cluttered community-centre set, Paul Anderson’s jagged lighting, and the use of a blown-up American flag across the auditorium’s seatbacks as a striking, scene-setting touch.
The reviews: what fell flat and what divided the critics
- An unconvincing central performance, according to some: Critics were mixed on Wright’s performance. Critics were mixed on Wright’s performance. The Standard praised her powerful performance, and The Independent found her ‘compellingly tough facade’ that ‘movingly crumbles’ under pressure very effective. The Times, on the other hand, felt her performances ‘never really convinces’ as the journalist at the story’s centre, going so far as to call it ‘one-dimensional.’ BroadwayWorld noted that the characters themselves fall into ‘Devil Wears Prada-esque stereotypes’ that never fully break.
- A script that divides opinion: Not everyone agreed on the plot, with critics offering different takes on it. The Times found it ‘convoluted,’ unsure of how the story ‘flits from one improbable twist to another.’ The Stage felt it ‘never quite gels into the shattering thriller the premise promises.’ On the other hand, The Standard, read the same twistiness as a strength, likening the play’s pace and momentum to ‘a superior streaming drama.’
- The outdated subject matter: Both The Standard and BroadwayWorld flagged that the play, originally written and staged in 2003, felt out of step with a social-media news landscape. BroadwayWorld called the absence of any social media element ‘an elephant in the room.’ The Standard also highlighted that the play can’t really help feeling out of date, given the ‘online perma-storm of today of course, where unreliable narratives are the norm.’
- Clint Dyer’s direction: This was another area where critics were divided. The Stage responded well to his ‘dynamic, deliberately disorienting’ approach, and enjoyed where the production cut between scenes and replayed events from different characters’ perspectives. Likewise, WhatsOnStage called his direction ‘superbly confident, and beautifully realised.’ BroadwayWorld offered the most criticism of Clint Dyer’s ‘maximalist approach.’ They felt that overlapping dialogue, constant video clips and frantic lighting cues ‘confuses the narrative, rather than enhancing it.’
- The scale of the Olivier: The Independent commented that the staging ‘works fantastically well’ on the Olivier’s big stage while Time Out argues the opposite: the second half ‘probably doesn’t benefit from the Olivier’s huge stage,’ suggesting it would work better as an intimate two-hander. The Standard also commented on the size of the Olivier, commenting that Dyer might have ‘preferred a smaller stage.’
The back story
Wilson’s play is inspired by a real-life scandal: Janet Cooke, the Washington Post reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for a story about a child heroin addict that was later revealed to be fabricated. In The Story, ambitious young journalist Yvonne joins a newspaper’s “Vanguard” desk, covering stories about the Black community, under veteran editor Pat, a hardened figure shaped by the civil rights movement. Yvonne is also dating Jeff, a white editor and heir to the paper’s founding family, complicating the newsroom politics further.
Frustrated at being sidelined from bigger stories, Yvonne pursues a sensational lead about a teenage gang member allegedly involved in a local shooting, a story that becomes a national sensation. She’s willing to do anything to get the story, buy when the facts begin to blur and ambition challenges her integrity, she is forced to navigate a cutthroat world where power is the only currency and truth is the first casualty.
This provocative thriller dives deep into the politics of race, representation, and the price of success in journalism today. In an era of misinformation, one question remains: who owns the story?
The cast includes:
- Yvonne: Letitia Wright
- Pat: Lorraine Toussaint
- Jeff: Wilf Scolding
- Neil: Ashley Thomas
- Latisha: Aliyah Odoffin
The company is completed by Everal A Walsh, Jay Simpson, Katie Buchholz, Matt Whitchurch, Unique Spencer, Angelina Chudi.
The creative team includes writer Tracey Scott Wilson and director Clint Dyer, with set design by Anna Fleischle, lighting design by Paul Anderson, sound design by composer Benjamin Grant, video/projection design by Tal Yarden and Gino Ricardo Green and costumes by Natalie Pryce
Where to see The Story
- Venue: National Theatre, until 24 October 2026
- Runtime: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Full details on The Story
What are the critics saying about The Story?
“A cracking melodrama about race and the media in America.”
“Tracey Scott Wilson’s 2003 play has the pace and punch of a superior streaming drama, and twists into intriguing directions.”
“It’s funny and provocative and goes places a British play might not.”
“Wilson is also good on the romance of newspapers – the thrill of the deadline and securing the front-page splash, the urge not to let facts get in the way of a good story.”
“The play can’t help but look dated in the online perma-storm of today of course, where unreliable narratives are the norm.”
“There are still soap-operatic elements, but they are sold with conviction.”
“Wright and Toussaint are coruscatingly powerful as the play’s mirroring leads. Thomas and Scolding flit nimbly from amusing to sinister in the supporting male roles. Rising talent Aliyah Odoffin contributes a vivid and crucial cameo.”
“This is a big, bold, entertaining swing at major issues, led with considerable star power.”
“This is a promising premise, but the play, despite updates to the script for this revival, falls strangely flat.”
“The two ambitious female characters articulate two opposite responses to racism and misogyny in their profession, but in practice, they often fall into Devil Wears Prada-esque stereotypes of the mentor and protege, never dropping the facade they wear at work.”
“There is also the question of how relevant this kind of story – a commentary on the media’s ability to twist truths and shape the narrative, first performed in 2003 – is in 2026, when social media has become many people’s primary way of getting news.”
“Dyer is a more effective director when he lets his actors work independently, and showcase the subtler machinations of the news business.”
“It is exciting to see the National plucking a work from obscurity like this – the production was apparently based on a chance encounter between Wilson and Dyer two decades ago. But this revival has done little to remedy The Story’s flaws.”
“This twisty, thought-provoking thriller grapples with themes of race, loyalty and journalistic integrity.”
“There are big, compelling ideas here, but Tracey Scott Wilson’s script never quite gels into the shattering thriller the premise promises.”
“Director Clint Dyer gives the piece a dynamic, deliberately disorienting treatment, cutting suddenly between sequences, replaying the same events from different perspectives, and sometimes having scenes unfold simultaneously.”
“Letitia Wright plays ambitious, overstretched Yvonne with convincing chutzpah.”
“Though Wilson’s play never quite resolves its meaty themes, it remains a stinging indictment of the US’ media culture.”
"Clint Dyer's flashy, pacy revival of this intelligent whodunnit resurrects a different era – one in which newspapers still owned the narrative, and blogs hinted at a more democratic future. It’s a fascinating watch, offering few easy takeaways."
"Dyer layers worlds together here, reflecting the intricate, symmetrical construction of Wilson’s text."
"Wright has a compellingly tough facade as this ambitious, impressively qualified young reporter; it’s a front that movingly crumbles as the white environments she’s so expert at navigating begin to turn on her."
"Wilson’s play is full of radical thinking, and the kind of piercing observations that make the audience gasp like deflating balloons."
"It goes to so many exciting, uncomfortable places, resisting the temptation to provide heroes, villains, or digestible messages. Still, its neatly crafted ambiguity ultimately feels frustrating. "
"It fizzes with ideas that are still relevant about the way the news is pursued and delivered."
"In the first half in particular, the play has the qualities of a thriller, a headlong, impassioned debate about who has the right to speak and what they have the right to say."
"As it progresses, it loads in too much weight, too many unanswered questions, and it takes all of Clint Dyer’s skill as a director and all the Olivier’s resources as a theatre to keep its spinning narrative clear."
"Dyer’s direction is superbly confident, and beautifully realised as characters speak and argue in parallel scenes."
"The questions of how Black journalists should write and work in the face of prejudice and distrust are genuinely pressing."
"On the whole The Story sprawls when it should tighten; it feels like a series of point paragraphs rather than a narrative."
"Wright is energetic and wired as Yvonne but her motivations – with a melodramatic explanation – never quite convince, and the fractured nature of the telling makes it hard to care about her."
"In the end, it is Toussaint who holds it all together, fierce and unbending and heartbreakingly destroyed by sacrificing her principles in a world and in an industry that makes it very difficult to succeed."
"Tracey Scott Wilson’s US newspaper drama The Story is definitely more red top than broadsheet in tone. But there’s always a place for some thrills in the theatre."
"Wilson’s play is unabashedly populist, bordering on trashy at times."
"Clint Dyer’s production is totally gripping, especially in the first half as the dialogue rapidly intercuts between the two rival journalists bitching about each other."
"Yes, it has the air of a well-made Channel 5 true-crime drama. But not all theatre need to be highbrow all the time."
"It makes a lot of incisive points about the fragility of the African-American community, especially as Pam’s hardassed facade melts (or at least, becomes more explicable)."
"The second half, though, is a headlong dive into melodrama that is just too much, and probably doesn’t benefit from the Olivier’s huge stage and abundance of resources."
"After a first half that moves at a pretty even pace, the second is a chaotic minefield of plot twists and revelations."
"Partly because with all that’s happened to American newspapers over the last two decades (they’re all screwed apart from the New York Times) it’s left feeling a little quaint."
“The convoluted storyline flits from one improbable twist to another without adding much to the conversation.”
“All the restless activity can’t mask the holes in the narrative, and Black Panther star Letitia Wright never really convinces as a reporter who turns a fictitious gangland story into front page news”
“Orange is the New Black star Lorraine Toussaint gives a weighty performance as Pat.”
“Wilson is brave enough to highlight the class divide which ensures that middle-class black Americans often know as little about ghetto life as their white neighbours. Yet a convoluted storyline flits from one improbable twist to another. Themes pile up, bullet point-style.”
“The Story arrives at an appropriate moment. Sadly, it doesn’t add much to the conversation.”
National Theatre - Olivier Theatre, London
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