LATER with Roy Williams @ Trafalgar Studios, London

LATER curated by Roy Williams presented by PainesPLOUGH @ Trafalgar Studios, London
LATER series curated by Duncan Macmillan

Roy Williams present extracts from his new pieces of work

REUNION
with: Che Walker, Cavan Clerkin, Jamie Davis, Alex Lanipekun, Pippa Nixon, Kate Sissions

SHIFTING SANDS
with: Natasha Bain, Marsha Henry

LATER is a late night series representing new work by British artists. This proved a chance to hear new works in progress by Roy Williams, OBE. Williams introduced his most recent work as two separately commissioned plays (one for the RSC and one for the Almeida) whose worlds overlap. Reunion is a study of a generation that finds itself "too young to be old and too old to be young" and featured likeable performances by its cast, given a chance to portray their characters at both 15 and then again as lost adults. We were given just a taste of the second piece, Shifting Sands, a study of the experience of English blacks, and what happens when you attempt to hide behind a facade of race. It details a relationship between a mourning mother and the father of the boy who shot her son in a drive by shooting.

This was the kind of night when y ou could sit back and revel in the ease of the language. You know you are in good hands. It has taken me too long to come across Roy Williams' work, and I suspect a treat awaits me in looking into the rest of his many plays- and for all the audiences lucky enough to catch his next two London premieres.