Campus drama Safe Space tackles the statue wars head-on

At the play’s opening, the Minerva theatre’s thrust stage presents a flagged square backed by a wood panelled wall decorated with the university’s insignia: a shield with an open book bearing a Hebrew inscription and, beneath, a banner with the Latin text Lux et Veritas (light and truth). The impression is stately, secure, timeless.

In the centre of this square, however, high on a plinth, his back to the heraldic symbols, stands the statue of John C Calhoun (1782-1850), after whom one of the university’s colleges is named. Many students feel decidedly uncomfortable about its presence. Bogyo’s play, based on the Yale campus protests of 2016-17, explores the tensions that finally built towards the removal of the statue and renaming of the college, through their effects on relationships among a group of students.

All five agree that Calhoun was a slave owner who championed slavery as “a positive good”. Connor (Bogyo), weighing this fact against Calhoun’s political achievements and historical context, initially sees no reason for change. Omar (Ivan Oyik) and Stacy (Bola Akeju) challenge the status quo, as does Annabelle (Céline Buckens) – the women fighting, also, for proper recognition in the historically male, sexist institution. Ernest Kingsley Jr’s Isaiah balances awkwardly on the fence.

Bogyo’s subject is interesting; his writing is promising but lacks craft to shape the drama so as to give his characters and arguments depth. Roy Alexander Weise’s direction highlights the liveliness of the dialogue (finely acted) but lacks pace to keep the overlong text motoring. A cappella singing, under Michael Henry’s musical direction and arrangements, adds sparkle and strikes satisfying emotional notes in the characters of Connor and Isaiah that the text doesn’t always reach.

Safe Space is at Minerva theatre, Chichester, until 8 November 

Photograph by Helen Murray