Review | Safe Space at Minerva Theatre, Chichester: 'A worthy way to end the summer season'

They say write about what you know – so the Yale alumnus setting his first play at his alma mater makes total sense.

Set in the dying days of the Obama presidency, it weaves together the lives of five students against the backdrop of growing calls to rename a college associated with a prominent supporter of slavery.

Personal and political overlap: relationships strain, friendships unravel and new romances blossom while political alliances are made and broken.

The play starts with Isaiah singing acapella – a recurring motif of the play – before he and his roommate, the ‘conservative’ Connor (also played by Bogyo) launch into a moral debate about the petition going around to rename their college.

Initially I was worried this would all be a bit too worthy for my taste - but there was plenty of humour to undercut the philosophising.

Also in the mix is Connor’s girlfriend Annabelle, who is running for president of the women’s leadership society, and her friend Stacy, a freshman who the former takes under her wing but blindsides her by beating her in the leadership contest.

Then there’s Omar - head of the African American society on campus whose revolutionary spirit belies his financially privileged background and who tries to convince Isaiah to sign his petition to rename the college.

All five play their parts impeccably; while the script is good it is due in large part to them that it hits the way it does.

Every single member of the quintet is morally dubious, which adds to the compelling nature of the drama unfolding.

Similarly, the tone is also ever-shifting: scenes begin with humour and end in conflict and vice versa.

One of my favourite scenes saw the fiercely proud Omar, played by Ivan Oyik, moaning about his literature lessons - 800 words in Paradise Lost and not a single black person, he protests - before this then gets serious as Isaiah refuses to sign his petition.

Bola Akeju as Stacey initially gets a lot of laughs as the fun-loving sidekick to Celine Buckens’ more earnest Annabelle, but this gets flipped on its head when she puts down her friend for not supporting her over her presidency success.

‘I win - I always win’, she tells a shocked Annabelle, and I was utterly convinced.

The end of the play did seem a bit too long, but I was so hooked by this stage that I was able to overlook it.

A worthy way to end the summer season.

Until Saturday, November 8.