Which is what their once blossoming relationship wilted into before it was cut short by separation and infidelity. And a tragic accident, revealed at the outset, which leaves the surviving partner questioning whether it is they or their late husband who is alive or dead.
The opposites attract characters may be black and white, but nothing in Gershwin’s fine script is certain. Which is ironic, for certainty are truth are what they both crave. A need driven into Hakeem from a young age by his dominant father who encouraged him, nay instructed him, to behave in every moment with so much conviction that what he said and did he would know to be true. Another interpretation of the titular free and proud.
Being free is easy, less so proud. But towards the end of a relationship, to be both is almost an impossibility. Particularly for the surviving partner who feels guilty for having strayed, yet even guiltier for feeling numb. The same partner who once jokingly said that his then-boyfriend made him feel “dead”.
Which is not a word you could use to describe the chemistry between Faaiz Mbelizi and Michael Gilbert. Both of whom deliver impressive performances which are as equally nuanced and intelligent as Peter Darney’s direction. The former cerebral and shy and controlling like his father, the latter carefree and childlike and impulsive as his hormones.
Together lovers are inseparable, apart they are free. But at the end of each inevitable highway, can they ever be proud?
- REVIEW: Orphans @ Edinburgh King’s Theatre ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - 13th April 2022
- REVIEW: Everybody’s Talking About Jamie @ Edinburgh Festival Theatre ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - 30th March 2022
- REVIEW: Sheila’s Island @ Edinburgh King’s Theatre - 2nd March 2022