A NEW drama exploring the British police’s contentious stop and search policy and its effect upon black communities is now on at the Broadway Theatre in Catford.

Written by actor turned prison officer turned writer and former Goldsmiths student Dominic Taylor, the play shows how two seemingly happy families are thrown together over the course of one evening.

Callie is 13 years old and black and goes missing one night. In their search to find him, his parents Dianne and Ivan come to discover how little they understand their son’s life when they find 36 stop and search orders in a box in his room.

Meanwhile, soon to be ex-copper Mick and his wife Ann learn more about their own son and his new life as a rookie copper.

Both families lives’ collide thanks to a series of incidents shown as vignettes on the small stage.

There are some twists and turns along the way and the cast of eight do a great job in telling the story and showing how the tensions between young black men and the police still exist.

Renee Castle and Valentine Hanson are excellent as Callie’s loving and ultimately distraught parents, but the evening really belongs to the younger cast members.

Jelissa Campbell as Allana is particularly moving as Callie’s sister and Jerome Holder puts in a remarkable and spine tingling performance as the young Callie.

Powerful, engaging, troubling and brilliantly performed, this is a play for our time and definitely one to go and see.

Broadway Theatre, 
Catford, London SE6 4RU   
27 April to 26 May
Mon – Sat at 8pm. Sat mats 4pm,
 Weds and Thurs mats 2pm
Box Office: 020 8690 0002 / www.broadwaytheatre.ticketsolve.com
www.stopsearch.co.uk
 Prices: £14.50 concs £11.00