The things we do for love… America the Beautiful (2026), Kings Head Theatre

Liam Jedele and Borris Anthony York (credit Ross Kernahan)

LaBute refuses comfort… That willingness to sit inside discomfort is what makes the work so compelling.

Borris Anthony York

"America the Beautiful" is a patriotic song first published on 4^th July 1895 with lyrics written by Katharine Lee Bates and music composed by church organist and choirmaster Samuel A. Ward at Grace Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey, though the two never met. Together they created a song for the ages and one that means something different to every age as the shifting signifiers of American Beauty coagulate into a murderous slop.

Oh sorry, that’s just my take but, to the point, what to make of one of the USA’s finest playwrights Neil LaBute, epic nine-scenario cycle addressing his homeland, love and persuasion in the 2020s? Tonight we saw the first of the triptych with three of these scenarios presented at the Kings Head all different in tone and building a bigger picture that forms itself in your mind as you dash for Kings Cross after realising that Angel Station is closed.

As played by various combinations of just four actors: Liam Jedele, Borris Anthony York, Anna María and Maya-Nika Bewley there is so much thinking required to map the emotional content of three widely different situations and never has the personal being so political in terms of the wider meaning in this, the second week of the Third Gulf War or, as might be said, WWIII.

The first sequence sees Liam Jedele as an anxious and conflicted man aiming to commit murder at the behest of a man Borris Anthony York whom he desires and wants to commit to a life together. Borris plays his paramour as an almost light-hearted and playful guy who winds his uptight boyfriend up with forgetting his key card, buying Danish pastries and turning up with a strict no contact clause in their relationship.

His character is about to marry a rich older man and, sizeable insurance policies being what they are, he can bear the repulsive sexual contact just long enough to get married before sending his new groom to his death at the hands of his younger lover. We’re just not sure, the longer they talk, if things will work out, Liam’s character apparently battling his own disgust at his sexuality and winding himself up to do the dead so that he can be with his love.

Any relationship between the flirtatious and ultimately faithless rulers of certain states and the War-maker in Chief are purely coincidental.

Borris Anthony York (credit Ross Kernahan)

Talking of which, Borris Anthony York makes a quick change of character and posture as his morphs into an American soldier on trial for the apparent killing of his wife, her lover and several others… This is the fanatic deceived by his own lack of logic – perhaps little reason to believe in his wife’s fidelity whilst also blaming her for what he “had” to do… cognitive dissonance in the face of so many dead.

Women have a “power”… his wife almost bade him do it and he had no rational explanation for his vengeful ferocity. It’s only a short leap to imagine the ICE agent’s decision to execute US citizens in the streets for simply getting in his way or for being “unfaithful” to a common culture someone had convinced him was shared widely. America is Ugly in different ways as it is beautiful: the kill switch is in the hands of the beholder.

Then last we saw either the greatest saleswoman in the world or the sweetest lover as Anna María works to persuade Maya-Nika Bewley that they should be lovers by firstly sleeping with her faithless boyfriend and then telling the other woman that she had to do it as a chance encounter had left her instantly smitten and convinced that she was the love of her live.

Taken at face value this is a sweet story but nothing is clearly as it seems in any of these acts, and given that there are six more to come, one should reserve judgement even as new possibilities emerge the more you think about what has just transpired.

It’s an exercise in persuasion and logic and, given this can be as much technique as anything else you’re not quite so sure that this is a love match or a power play? Have we not seen sexual power – or just force of personality – used to make people act against their will?

Anna María and Maya-Nika Bewley credit Ross Kernahan

IThankYouTheatre verdict: I’m reeling on the train post show and can only throw four big stars back in the play’s direction. It’s daring and engaging and so well performed by the four leads who make the most of LaBute’s outstanding words. ****

These are actors we will want to see more of and the direction from Artistic Director of Greenwich Theatre James Haddrell is outstanding creating another world just yards away from the comforts of Upper Street.

The first two chapters play at the King’s Head until 21^st March and then transfer to the Greenwich Theatre from 31^st March to 4^th April.

Do not miss these intimate and impactful shows, you won’t stop thinking about them for days…