David Alade is a young new playwright from South London whose beautiful and moving tribute for his father, Sunny, emerged from the creative environment of the Peckham Fringe Festival. As well as a requiem for a much loved father, David’s one hour solo show at Soho Theatre Upstairs is both a morality tale and a coming of age story.
The nature vs nurture debate is the uncredited star guest here, as David reflects amusingly on his upbringing in a popular estate, born from Nigerian parents in Peckham. What if it had been Brixton? What if he had not gone to Sunday Church school? What if he had not attended St Thomas The Apostle School but his other local one, an Academy? What if he had not attended University, affectionately referred to as “the rebrand”?
David tells us of these past turning points and near misses without anger and with much wit and wisdom.
We are made to see the key formative moments through the eyes of little David, going through his earliest heartbreak in primary school, bullying in high school, being picked up by the police simply for being out and about at 2 am, being knifed by gang members his same background and age, just the other side of the nurture equation.
But it is also an uplifting morality tale as little David refused to let his environment define him, thanks in no small part to a loving father and a supportive family, “the dream team”. His telling of his father’s painful decline, stroke and vascular dementia is poignant without being self-indulgent: living up to his father’s positive spirit as he navigates life is where he is at.
Grown up David is now master of his own destiny through theatre, “the one GCSE where he got an A+”.
The Soho Theatre show is a loving tribute to the institutions that made him, with special mention, within the play, of Anglia Ruskin University, the “University in Cambridge but not Cambridge University” where his “rebrand” took place, and the various schools he attended, making an appearance through uniform blazers. Theatre Peckham Rep Company and the astonishing The Identity School of Acting must be very proud of their star alumnus. There is a lot to look forward in David Alade’s next new writing. Catch him while you can.