ear for eye

The 2018 stage play from the Olivier award-winning dramatist Debbie Tucker Green is adapted for the screen in eye-catching style. Divided into three parts, ear for eye begins with a series of dialogues between African American and black British families and friends, shining a light on generational tension and racial profiling and using repetition to powerfully convey the prevalence of prejudice. Part two focuses on a conversation between a black student (No Time to Die's Lashana Lynch) and a white professor (Demetri Goritsas) on the topic of terrorism, where he patronises and silences her while trivialising the actions of "lone wolf" Caucasian killers. The final act sees white members of the public, including children, reading out slave codes and Jim Crow laws. It's theatrical in nature and structure but the impassioned performances and striking production design - which sees leaves, rain and snow fall on a largely bare black stage - are mesmerising. The rhythm, poetry and rage of Tucker Green's writing is done full justice by the splendid cast, which also includes Sharlene Whyte, Danny Sapani and Nadine Marshall, in a convention-defying work that provides plenty to chew on.