Leo Whitfield Harris and Gershwyn Eustache Jnr in Iford Boy [Helen Murray]

DANNY Lee Wynter’s affecting drama Ilford Boy follows the rites of passage of mixed-race teenager Ted (a confident debut from Leo Whitfield Harris), who lives with his working-class mum Tillie (Ria Zmitrowicz) in east London.

As the play opens in 1995, they are mourning his nan, while Tillie and her sisters Jackie (Jodie McNee) and Ann (Charlotte Jaconelli) prepare to empty the family home.

Tillie is no longer with Ted’s father Ken (a macho Gershwyn Eustache Jnr), though they’re apt to fall into bed when he visits, and Jackie and Ann’s husbands – browbeaten Trevor (Cary Crankson) and controlling Raj (Aaron Gill) – prove equally poor male role models for Ted.

The person who changes his life most is Tillie’s old friend, the actor-singer Patrick (an ebullient Craig Stein), who turns up for the funeral.

Black and gloriously camp, he takes Ted to see Adrian Lester playing the leading role in Company. The sight of a black man centre stage allows Ted to imagine another life for himself and embrace his sexuality, despite the shadow of AIDS hanging over Patrick.
There are flashbacks to 1980 – we see the sisters growing up with their mother Eileen (Lindsey Coulson) and Patrick struggling for acceptance – although this occasionally overloads the play with unnecessary backstory.

The cast is pitch-perfect; the sisters’ bickering all too believable. Tim Sheader’s production draws out the humour in the family dynamics, and there’s a stunning scene when Patrick tap-dances to Don’t Rain on My Parade.

The neon lights in Peter McKintosh’s two-storey set add a welcome touch of razzle to this lovely, compassionate play.

Until November 28
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