After Sunday

Bush Theatre

Playing until 20th December 2025

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Photo credit: Nicola Young

{PR Gifted ticket}

Providing a cooking class for three people in a high security hospital, Naomi (Aimée Powell) encourages the three members of her class, Ty (Corey Weekes), Daniel (Darrel Bailey) and Leroy (David Webber) to support each other to overcoming their individual challenges and work towards catering for a dinner that they could invite their family to. This play explores the disputes among the three men, their trauma and what this goal means for each one of them.

Despite the fact that this is Sophia Griffin’s debut play, there is already a depth in Griffin’s writing, hiding each character’s past until the narrative matures to deliver an explosive and impactful scene. The three men are driven by their own agenda: Ty is desperate to leave the hospital to go back to prison, Leroy has found comfort in the hospital and despite having been there for a long ter, he is fearful of taking the next step, and Daniel is willing to do anything to reconnect with his family.

Weekes, Bailey and Webber form an exceptional ensemble, pushing each other to elevate the characters, carefully woven together by Corey Campbell’s direction. Even among the three fantastic actors, Webber is still able to shine through above the others to deliver the most nuanced and delicate performance within this show. He gradually transitions from a more senile character to one that displays immense emotions, remorse for his past actions, and overwhelming joy from seeing his daughter’s response to his letter.

Being the most temperamental of the three, Ty comes across as the most violent and the one that everyone is weary of. However, there is also a sense of youthfulness and playfulness in this character, traits that Weekes has done a fantastic job in portraying, showing the subtle smirk and cheekiness when he steals Leroy’s flour when he made a mess of his own, and also prominently displaying an aggressive response to the decision to keep him in the hospital for longer than he anticipated.  On the other hand of the spectrum, Daniel is the most reserved and avoids confrontations, quietly working away and bringing the group together. However, he is the most driven of the three to make the friends and family day work in order to fulfil a promise he made to his daughter, going as far as lying to Leroy and manipulating the situation. It is worth noting that Bailey’s character is not driven by sinister motives, but by a quiet resolve, heart wrenching response when the day didn’t turn out the way he wanted.

Serving as the glue among the three men, Powell’s Naomi has clearly fostered a clear bond with her class and has tried to do everything within her power to support them. Within the confines of the script, Powell demonstrates a myriad of emotions to deliver an empathetic character driven by her own goal to make the class a success. Being the character that directly communicates with more senior people that decides the fates of the three prisoners, it remain unclear what role she plays within the system and what is within her power of influence. Perhaps this ambiguity is precisely Griffin’s intention, highlighting the confusion not just among the prisoners, but also some of the people that work within it. Nonetheless, it would have been beneficial make provide a more definitive intention, which I believe would have further fleshed out Naomi’s character and her role among all of this.

Claire Winfield has designed an amazing stage, creating a cooking classroom for the duration of the play and flexibility manoeuvrability with the trolley countertops, which is capitalised upon fully during the food preparation for the friends and family day.

The creatives of this show have also incorporated a significant level of choreography, with individual acting out certain actions with their body in the background, especially when the stage is dimmed and the spotlight is placed on a single character. My interpretation is that this is meant to showcase the psychological state of the characters as the narrative progresses and how these impact on their wellbeing. However, the movements are abstract and it is not clear to me whether they contribute to the overall narrative, or distracting the audience from it.

Despite the fact that not everything is fully resolved, After Sunday conveys hope and sense of satisfaction within an imperfect system. There is reward in itself by giving it your all, irrespective of the outcome. Within this in mind, deliberately leaving out a few ingredients may in fact still produce an excellent recipe.

Creatives

Writer: Sophia Griffin

Director: Corey Campbell

Dramaturg: Grace Barrington

Set Designer: Claire Winfield

Composer: XANA

Lighting Designer: Ali Hunter

Costume Designer: Naomi Thompson