The word "story" can mean both a fiction and a true account, as in the case of a fact-checked newspaper report. Tracey Scott Wilson's play deals with a confusion of these two definitions, set in the racially febrile world of the American press in 2003. She was inspired by the case of Janet Cooke, a Black Washington Post journalist who faked a story about a Black child addict in 1981, won a Pulitzer Prize and, when exposed, had to hand it back. Elements of Cooke can be discerned in Yvonne (Letitia Wright of Black Panther fame), Wilson's young, ambitious protagonist.
The story of the title refers to the case of a white teacher shot while driving his pregnant wife home through a Black area in Boston. Yvonne claims to meet, at great personal risk, the perpetrator, a young female gang member. She is determined to move to the more prestigious News section from The Vanguard, an area of the paper specialising in Black stories, to which she has just been recruited thanks to a glittering CV and, no doubt, her secret relationship with Jeff (Wilf Scolding) a scion of the founder's family. She intends this story, true or not, to be her right of passage. Her immediate boss, Pat (seasoned American actor Lorraine Toussaint, pictured below left), is a more mature Black rights campaigner of the old school who, nevertheless, has ambitions of her own.
Friction (as well as, ultimately, respect, even grudging affection) is inevitable between these two. They share their office with Neil (actor-rapper Ashley Thomas) who is a serious journalist, determined to uncover the truth. Under the dramatic storyline Wilson has captured something of run-of-the-mill office politics here, in the resentment of a gilded newcomer parachuted into a milieu where others have worked tirelessly to keep the show on the road.
Wilson neither doles out blame nor excuses wrongdoing, although it is clear that both Yvonne and Pat have suffered at the hands of men. Letitia Wright gives Yvonne an attractive, clear-eyed determination but Wilson does not provide her with much psychological depth. Toussaint has the opportunity to give some insight into how Pat came to be where she is, providing an account of her early struggles and her unquestioning loyalty to the Civil Rights movement and subsequently The Vanguard, whatever the cost. These two, along with Ashley Thomas as Neil (pictured below right), are standout performances in a busy ensemble.
Clint Dyer's direction never drops the baton. It is speedy to the point of relentlessness, sometimes two scenes happening almost simultaneously on the wide Olivier stage, a split effect much helped by Paul Anderson's lighting. The set design by Anna Fleischle conjures a community centre, somewhere for the young to play basketball and sing (rather well) in a choir, but it is also flexible enough to become an office, a police station and other venues.
Given the date of the action, only print and television reports feature here, not the wild west of social media. The Jason Arday case has been mentioned in discussions of The Story - and, indeed, it is one way in which the production seems timely - but, more than a couple of decades later, the role of toxic online comment adds a further dimension.
There are twists and turns right up to the closing minutes and, if the final scene seems at first unnecessarily melodramatic, it is as well to remember the connection between ambition, public communication, the instant effects of misinformation and the potential for anger on our streets.
The Story deals head-on with difficult, important subjects. It sometimes seems rushed, even scrambled, but it is bold and, despite the date setting, still pertinent.
