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Tracey Scott Wilson’s play follows in the fine tradition of the fast-paced newsroom drama, beginning with the cold-blooded murder of a white schoolteacher by an unknown Black assailant as his pregnant wife watches. Cue moral panic, rolling news and the entry of a fiery young journalist determined to solve the case.
That is where the Watergate-style investigative blueprint warps because Yvonne (Letitia Wright, of Black Panther fame) is no simple hero in pursuit of truth. She is an ambitious Black woman, assigned to an enclave of a newspaper reserved for Black journalists. Her imperious editor, Pat (Lorraine Toussaint) is after positive news stories on the Black community while her white editor boyfriend, Jeff (Wilf Scolding) promises her a bigger gig if she proves herself worthy.
Neither Yvonne nor the press come out of it with their integrity intact: she lies and invents (her character is based on Janet Cooke, a journalist for the Washington Post discredited for making up a Pulitzer prize-winning story in 1981), while the media is shown to be motivated by editorialising and reshaping the facts to suit their needs.
The story beneath The Story is one of media spin and fake news caught in the crosshairs of racial politics. Yvonne and Pat represent opposite ends of the same spectrum: the former wants to be seen as a “reporter rather than a Black reporter” while Pat speaks of the lack of diversity in the newsroom and the historical struggle to be represented authentically.
The themes to Wilson’s 2003 play could not be more apposite today, particularly in relation to the barrage of press coverage in the lead up to the death of Black academic, Jason Arday. Director Clint Dyer’s production has great forward momentum and kinetic pace, with a slick performance from Wright as a tough cookie with no cracks in her armour. It is highly theatrical with fast cuts between scenes and a doubling of action so you see dual scenarios playing out at once, especially in the thrillingly adrenalised first half, although it is so fast and complex at times that you lose the thread.
The decision to keep the drama in its original timeframe means there is no mention of social media or the internet – the prevailing means of news consumption today. So recurring scenes of reporters brandishing microphones and headline news projected on to the enormous backdrop of the Olivier auditorium feels old-school. Yet it keeps its relevance within this period setting; what emerges as the story beneath The Story now is not so much a revelation on the nature of news journalism, but a dual portrait of Black female ambition. You see through both Yvonne and Pat how this is stymied or made smaller by huge, patriarchal forces. Between these two characters and Black news reporter, Neil (Ashley Thomas), who is intent on revealing the truth, a complicated exploration of authenticity arises – who has the right to represent the Black community, and who to critique it?
The second half of the production is more strained as it slows its pace to draw out its messages, and you wish for more texture in all the characters. Yet it is excitingly staged theatre with an ambition as bold as Yvonne’s, seeking to say so much about women, race and the media that still feels incredibly timely.
A final, haunting, scene cuts away from the news frenzy to draw our eye to what is happening on the street, beyond the spin and the chasm between the two. That gulf – between reality and its representation in a woefully (or wilfully) out-of-touch press – is surely the story of today.
