Retrograde revisits Hollywood’s blacklist with power and poise

Retrograde | Apollo Theatre | Booking until 14th June

Sidney Poitier was the star of Lilies of the Field, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and In the Heat of the Night, and was the first Black man to win an Academy Award for Best Actor. But Retrograde takes us to a pivotal moment in his career when he was trying to take the next step when everything could have gone another way.

Nathaniel Price’s taut three-hander drops us into this turning point in Poitier’s early career. He’s in a room with a lawyer and a screenwriter, and he’s about to be offered a life-changing contract. The catch? He has to sign a loyalty oath swearing he’s not a communist and, worse, name his friend and mentor, Paul Robeson, as one. This is Hollywood in the 1950s, deep in the grip of the McCarthy witch hunts. Say the wrong thing, refuse to sign, and your career vanishes overnight. Sign, and you sell out your principles. No easy choices here.

Ivanno Jeremiah is remarkable as Poitier. The challenge with playing a real person, especially one as well-known as Poitier, is deciding whether to impersonate or interpret. Jeremiah wisely goes for the latter. He captures the struggles of a young man trying to find a place in an industry that wants to typecast him in roles with no agency. This is Poitier before he became Sidney Poitier: a young man, ambitious but principled, realising just how high the stakes are.

He is ably supported by Stanley Townsend as the lawyer who is trying to fast-talk and manipulate him into compromising his ideals, and Oliver Johnstone as the young screenwriter who initially is on Poitier’s side, until he realises the consequences of those principles.

The play is well-structured. With only three characters, every exit and re-entry must feel justified, and while you can sometimes see the mechanics at work, the script is tight and compelling. It’s fiction rooted in fact, we know Poitier faced real pressure during this period, but what was actually said behind closed doors is unknown. Price fills in the gaps with sharp dialogue, simmering tension, and a slow-burn escalation that never loses momentum.

The historical backdrop is fascinating. The Hollywood blacklist destroyed careers, lives, and reputations. Actors, writers, and directors were forced to name names or never work again. That’s the weight hanging over Poitier’s decision in Retrograde. The question isn’t just about one contract – it’s about loyalty, survival, and the price of integrity.

It’s also, crucially, a gripping piece of theatre. The tension is relentless. There are moments of humour, sharp, knowing lines that break the intensity, but the underlying menace never fades. At just 90 minutes, without an interval, it builds and builds.

The Kiln Theatre’s original production was rightly praised, and the move to the Apollo is well-earned. This is a play that deserves a wider audience. It’s smart, urgent, and uncomfortably relevant because while the names have changed, the fundamental dilemmas haven’t. How much are we willing to compromise to succeed? And when the pressure’s on, do we stand by our principles or let them slip away?

If you like your theatre serious, compelling, and full of weighty moral dilemmas, Retrograde is unmissable.

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