‘Sus’ is set on the eve of Thatcher’s landslide victory in 1979, with shocking similarities with the current climate as Liz Truss takes the reins of the Conservatives and the Met Police come under scrutiny.

‘Sus’, written by Barrie Keeffe is a contrast of cultures, politics, race and perspectives on morals and values. As we enter the auditorium, Margaret Thatcher’s voice boomed through the speakers “without the rule of law can be no liberty”, this is intercepted by a melody of “everythings’ gonna be alright” sang over a soft reggae tune. These elements set the tone for the play which puts systematic racism within the police force and the oppression of black men, under a microscope; ‘Sus’ of course being short for ‘suspicion’ or ‘suspect’.

 ‘Sus’ is staged in traverse, with minimal set (Mark Hesketh, Set Builder), lighting (Jamie Platt, Lighting Designer) and music (Philip Matejtschuk, Sound Designer) with no over the top enhancements or distractions, simply there are 2 chairs and a table that remain on stage throughout. This leaves both the cast completely exposed to the audience as well as the audience members on opposing sides of the stage in eye line with each other. This makes for a very intimate environment for what is an impactful, though close to the bone piece of writing. All actors, Stedroy Cabey (Delroy), Alexander Neal (Karn) and Fergal Coghlan (Wilby) gave exceptional truthful performances, creating palatable tension and sorrow.

 At the start of the production Karn sets the English political climate in the 1970s; which is paramount to underpinning the race relations themes throughout the piece, and poignant as many of these issues we see are still very evident today. In order to balance the debate, we also get an insight into the difficulties police officers may face, in terms of lack of support and protection from their commissioners at the top rankings of the force. It also explores more visceral aspects such as the continual increasing legislation to learn to enforce, on top of the old English laws which are no longer relevant in current affairs. ‘Sus’ digs deep, the themes within the writing are complex, multifaceted and generational.

When Delroy joins the stage, as a young black male, attempting to navigate a broken legal system through the use of humour, at first we are taken aback, uncertain of how to deal with the light being shed on what is a suffocating situation. It was an interesting director’s choice (Paul Tomlinson) to select humour as a tool to express police harassment of marginalised groups. Half of the audience seemed to find this hysterical, half did not laugh at all – I was in the latter cluster. Though, in hindsight, I can appreciate it was needed due to the seriousness that was to follow.

Through the character of Delroy, we gain a deep understanding around modern day policing issues such as biased ‘stop and search’ powers and police brutality. Whilst through the roles of Karn and Wilby, the play highlights how significant impact party politics have on policing. Overall, a play that tackles racial discrimination, politics and reduced circumstances due to poverty. The narrative certainly is much needed place on our stages, hopefully it will tour rural parts of the UK following it’s run at the Park Theatre!