Excellent performances from the five-strong cast [Mark Douet]

The Meat of Kings! (Inc.) of Brooklyn Heights
Park 200 Theatre
3.5 stars

Hannah Doran’s play, winner of the 2024 Papatango Prize, gets off to a slow start, but stay with it as the stakes soon rise. We’re in Cafarelli & Sons, a Brooklyn butcher that’s served the local community for 100 years.

Its owner, Paula (Jackie Clune), is proud of her Italian immigrant heritage and the business her family built through years of hard graft. She hires those with similar backgrounds, including ex-cons, who struggle to find steady employment elsewhere.

On her payroll are head butcher David (Eugene McCoy), a former Wall Street worker undone by drug addiction; Billy (Ash Hunter); and JD (Marcello Cruz), a Mexican who came to the US as a child. Joining them for the summer is Billy’s cousin T (Mithra Malek).

Doran takes her time establishing the characters’ shifting relationships. Costs are rising, sales are falling, steaks have gone missing, and the books don’t balance. Tension erupts when Paula announces she can’t keep on both JD and Billy as apprentices. Who she promotes to junior butcher depends on their performance in the cut tests.

JD is the more talented, so Billy sets out to scupper his chances, involving T in his machinations. He’s worried about finding enough money for his sick mother’s care.

The play gains momentum in the second half as Doran explores how the American Dream has soured under Trump. Those on the bottom rung struggle to stay afloat in a dog-eat-dog world, living in fear of putting a foot wrong.

Hunter has the hardest task – ensuring Billy doesn’t become a cartoon villain. But The Meat Kings! (Inc.) of Brooklyn Heights is cleverly plotted, and George Turvey’s assured direction draws out excellent performances from his five-strong cast.

Until November 29
parktheatre.co.uk/