FringeReview UK 2025
A Good House
Royal Court Theatre and Bristol Old Vic

Genre: Comedic, Contemporary, Drama, International, Mainstream Theatre, New Writing, Political, Short Plays, Theatre
Venue: Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Festival: FringeReview UK
Low Down
“My man.” A phrase and an encounter – not quite confrontation – of one neighbour by a more established one. It sets up the language underpinning racism and language, what we put our name to, and who asks us. It’s at the heart of this excoriating satirical play by South African dramatist Amy Jeptha. Produced in association with Bristol Old Vic, A Good House is directed by Nancy Medina at the Royal Court’s Downstairs till February 8th.
At 100 minutes straight through it won’t let go: a play deeper than the satire which propels it. And subtly layered enough to brush the epic. A stunning smack between the eyes and a must-see.
Review
“My man.” A phrase and an encounter – not quite confrontation – of one neighbour by a more established one. It sets up the language underpinning racism and language, what we put our name to, and who asks us. It’s at the heart of this excoriating satirical play by South African dramatist Amy Jeptha. Produced in association with Bristol Old Vic, A Good House is directed by Nancy Medina at the Royal Court’s Downstairs till February 8th.
Sihle (Sifoso Mazibuko) a securities trader, has just been asked to move his truck by Christopher (Scott Sparrow). But it’s not his truck, but his builder’s. And later it’s not his shack under scrutiny, so why is he targeted for action? Even if that shack causes Christopher and his wife Lynette (Olivia Darnley) to visit (ostensibly as friendly neighbours) Sihle and his sophisticated wife Bonolo (Mimi M Khayisa).
After compliments always brought up short by Bonolo (“He’s an excellent asset because you know him?”), their purpose becomes clear. Christopher and Lynette want their neighbours’ signatures: to demand these “invisible” people or ‘”squatters” take it down again.
If Sihle’s the peacemaker up to a point, clocking everything, Bonolo politely asks uncomfortable questions. It’s assumed by four neighbours this shack, the builders and occupiers of whom never appear (a bit Godot’s house) are Black. Sihle has always been “Slinky” to his unsubtle white colleagues. Someone who like the toy obediently somersaults because he’s had to struggle. Bonolo, more assured refuses subtexts. Their marital dynamics play against their protagonists, themselves not flat.
Of all three couples in A Good House, it’s Christopher and Lynette we never see alone, but a new couple, “their kind” of people have just moved in. As Sihle discovers, from calling whilst jogging, they’re mistaken for the shack people. We’ve already seen uptight yoga teacher Jess (Robyn Rainsford) push off failed sandwich-bar maker Andrew (Kai Luke Brummer) when alone. A more naked racism emerges when they host the signing.
Just two signatures are “more targeted”, Lynette and Christopher reason. Then why does Christopher and his neighbours have access to something these very neighbours don’t?
If language exhibits racism, the mode it operates is through property, the shift of ownership from white settlers, retaliatory last-ditch exclusion. Literally blood and soil.
Assumptions apparently liberal white South Africans make strew the play like IUDs set amidst the cheese dishes. Christopher and Lynette over-anxious to prove their liberalism trip up in front of large mirrors they never see. Sparrow is excellent as Christopher, keen on clinching the deal and brushing aside every query and dilation – including that of his affronted racist neighbour Andrew, played with unnerving outrage by Brummer. Andrew paid more for his house: already stretched, he fears losing value. Rainsford’s Jess looks primed to detonate she’s so tense, taking up a singing bowl to calm herself. Darnley’s Lynette is witlessly heedless, less focused and playing the wrong mood music like slipped discs.
Bonolo though plays a longer game, brought out with watchful clarity and quiet authority by Khayisa. Each of her interjections clears an air of pause as others reset. Sihle’s clarity once aroused is excoriating: “Are we, to you, like the people, the invisible people, the invaders, in that shack?” And speaking in Zulu in an out-of-time moment, Sihle invokes Ralph Ellison’s lines to Bonolo about the invisible not wanting to wake “the sleeping ones” since “the sleepwalkers” are dangerous. Mazibuko moves from affable “Slinky” even enacting its cringe, through to wittily returning “my man” with a touch of interest. Mazibuko’s final transformation though thrills with justice.
ULTZ’s set foregrounds different living rooms with descending artwork, smart for Bonolo’s taste, and more minimal for Jess and Andrew’s. It’s at the latter’s we see the colourful shack, both built (comically a satellite dish is mentioned and one appears) and dismantled. Chris Davey’s lighting gradates the interiors these couples enjoy, and invokes the shack’s chimeric distance. Femi Temowo’s music with its memorable instrumentation sashays through the plot; in Elena Pena’s sound it’s pinpoint but not overwhelming. There are though other sounds off. With the spectral and timeless also invoked by paring the Epilogue’s text, so instead of being previous, it becomes a no-time continuum in Lynette’s final speech.
A Good House doesn’t proceed as you’d predict: the squirm moments litter it. The reactions though of Sihle and Bonolo are its heart. Their evolving reactions to their neighbours and how it impacts them, prove it a play deeper than the satire which propels it. And subtly layered enough to brush the epic. At 100 minutes straight through it won’t let go: a stunning smack between the eyes and a must-see.
Assistant Director Tatenda Shamiso, Casting Director Arthur Carrington, Modelmaking and Drawing Mark Simmonds, Associate Designer Shaquelle Devroux, Voice and Accent Coach Hazel Holder, Dramatherapist Samantha Adams.
Stage Manager Martha Mamo, DSM Olivia Roberts, ASM Emily Mei-Ling Pearace , Sound Operator Patrick O’Sullivan, Scenery Bult by Bristol Old Vic Scenic Workshop.