Noughts & Crosses review: Heartstopper's Corinna Brown stars in Malorie Blackman stage adaptation

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Noughts & Crosses highlights the prejudice Black people have been subjected to for generations, and Blackman has said Callum (our male lead and a Nought) had to cope with certain events which were lifted directly from her own childhood and teenage years, such as "enduring his history lesson, or being challenged for being in a first-class carriage on a train".

In the Noughts & Crosses world, segregation, state-sanctioned intimidation, unfair trials — with the juries made up of all Crosses — and censorship on the news is the norm. 24 years on, Blackman's story of injustice feels poignant in the current climate.

As Callum says in the play: "one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter", it begs the question of what lengths should a person go to to demand equality?

With this said, bringing Noughts & Crosses to the stage is no small feat. Dominic Cooke's adaptation of the book was originally performed at the RSC in 2007, and now he's brought the production to Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in London.

Corinna Brown (Sephy) and Noah Valentine (Callum) in Noughts & Crosses. Manuel Harlan

It was my first time at the open air theatre in Regent's Park, and the setting was magnificent. Albeit small, I loved that the audience experienced the sun setting and birds tweeting as the play runs. The backdrop of the park emphasises Colin Richmond’s brutalist set, which is made up of rusty towers, intimidating walkways and grey tiles, all of which aren't too dissimilar to a prison (or the bathroom in Saw I...). The staging has the affect of imposing danger.

As we know, danger is exactly what's in store for our modern day Romeo and Juliet, Callum (played by Noah Valentine) and Sephy (played by Corinna Brown). Sephy is a Cross and her friendship with Callum (a Nought) is barely tolerated; Sephy is beaten up for sitting with Callum at lunch and Sephy is thrown-out of Callum's house when she pays her respects for the loss of Callum's sister, Lynette.

Brown and Valentine are believable as friends to lovers, and I enjoyed watching their romance unfold on stage, as well as seeing the pair become more mature as they experienced hardship.

However, it was these hard-hitting scenes that wore the production down. Cooke's Noughts & Crosses felt a bit too rushed and too condescended. While it stays faithful to Blackman's book, I felt it would've made sense for some scenes to be cut out, and some of the softer scenes (such as those between Callum and Sephy) to be drawn out.

The production is incredibly heavy; every time we see Callum's mum Meggie (played by Kate Kordal) on stage, she's shouting or crying, whether that's her because her husband has been sentenced to life in prison, her daughter has died, her other son has gone missing, or Callum has been given the death penalty.

The near-endless grittiness means that other storylines aren't fleshed out enough. For example, I would've loved to have learnt more about Sephy's mum Jasmine's (played by Amanda Bright) relationship with Callum's parents.

That being said, the heaviness of Noughts & Crosses is there to covey important themes and messages, and this story is just as important in 2025 as it was in 2001.

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For more of the best open air theatre shows, take a look at our guide.