Stop and Search
Arcola Theatre, London

THE interconnected conversations between a trio of couples who’ve come together at moments of stress and danger — moments at which humanity and compassion are directly called into question — is the focus of Gabriel Gbadamosi’s Stop and Search.

Tel is driving back to Britain with Akim, who’s trying to get into the country and might just be able to keep Tel awake on the drive. Lee and Tone are staking out an address, waiting for someone to turn up, with the former ready for violence and the latter unconvinced, while Bev gets into a cab and directs the driver to a bridge.

Each of their conversations covers a lot of ground, among them immigration, crime, relationships, trans identities and racism. And each is explored in depth and their echoes in the other conversations complicate the ideas and politics even more, so that Akim’s experience trying to get into Britain comes to echo that of Bev as a black Londoner.