REVIEW: THE BROWN SUITE @ RICHMOND THEATRE

🎭 The Brown Suite

📍 Richmond Theatre, 1 Little Green, Richmond, TW9 1QJ

🗓 Wednesday 30th September 2026

⭐️ 2 Stars

LOST IN THE GROOVE

A brand new dance production featuring the iconic funk and soul hits of James Brown, Sam Cooke, and Etta James sounded like exactly my thing, so last night I headed to Richmond full of excitement for the world premiere of THE BROWN SUITE.

Unfortunately, I left the theatre bitterly disappointed. The show promised to be sexy, soulful, and full of life - but, in my opinion, it missed the mark on all of these aspects.

The narrative is supposed to follow seven distinct characters as their lives, romances, and heartbreaks collide on a 1970s New York dancefloor. Because it is told entirely through movement with zero spoken dialogue, the choreography has to do some seriously heavy lifting to communicate who these people are. Sadly, the plot completely loses its way amidst the sea of bodies. It was incredibly difficult to figure out what the relationships actually were, who was flirting with whom, or why we should care about their redemption arcs. Without a clear narrative thread, it just felt like a sequence of disconnected club scenes rather than a cohesive story.

Let's talk about what did work - and that was Joshie Harriette's incredible lighting and set designs. The set was rather industrial and relatively sparse, but was actually perfect for this piece. The lighting was beautifully atmospheric, and wonderfully added a little bit of life to an overall lacklustre production.

The main issue with this piece was unfortunately the choreography itself. Put together by BLACBRIK, it felt uninspired, and was honestly quite dull. I watch a lot of dance productions, from small and intimate to large-scale, and I'm sorry to say that this one just didn't match up. Everything felt really bland if I'm honest. There was a lot of walking around, and it quickly felt frustratingly repetitive. Both myself and my friend actually felt bored by it.

I couldn't help but think they urgently needed a dramaturg to help with the storytelling. Regular readers of mine will know how much importance I put in a central story, and sadly the story here just wasn't strong. A dramaturg would really look at how the story is being told, and give it a succinct and strong core.

The transitions between scenes felt clunky, and I didn't understand the need for an interval, other than to extend the runtime. Without the interval it would have run at just over an hour, and maybe the interval was to help the audience feel that we'd got more for our money.

The dancers themselves were very good, and really did their best with the material they'd been given. The strongest performer in my opinion was Joshi Martina, who unfortunately seemed to have the least to do.

During Act Two, I was distracted by someone randomly running up and down the exposed wings at the side of the stage. What on earth was she doing?

Overall, a bitterly disappointing night at the theatre. I'm awarding two stars - one for the set and lighting, and one for the performers.

Although I wouldn't recommend this show, if you want to make up your own mind about it, it's playing at Richmond Theatre until Saturday 3rd October. CLICK HERE to find out more, and to book tickets.

Neill Kovacic-Clarke

All views are my own and I pride myself on being honest, fair and free from influence. Theatre is subjective and it is important to remember that all views expressed are just those of one person.

CAST LIST:

Lukas Hunt as Marcus; Leila Wright as Denise; Hugo Bragg as Julian; Darius Drooh as Ray; Monique Jonas as Angela; Nahum McLean as Victor; Joshi Martina as Mr New York

RUNNING TIME (approx):

1 hour 25 minutes, including interval

AGE GUIDELINE:

8+

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