Writer and Director: Adam Savva
This weekend, the police successfully kept apart two rival protests: that of Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom rally and the pro-Palestinian Nakba Day demonstration. Adam Savva’s timely new play showing at this year’s high-quality Peckham Fringe imagines a situation where the police are unable to maintain the peace between two sides, and riots break out in the unnamed English town. The first few minutes of Infinite Colours on the Drink Aisle are the most exciting of any show in London this year.
Four Far-Right protestors, two counter-protestors and one policewoman find themselves trapped in a corner shop. The two sides fight; a taser is used; the lights go out. These early thrills are brilliantly directed by Savva.
With the emergency services too stretched to contemplate freeing the seven people – an eighth person appears later – common ground between them seems like an impossibility, and Officer Shanti finds it difficult to exert her authority over the white Far-Right protestors. Played out in real time, the tension in Infinite Colours is palpable.
As Lee, the leader of the stranded Far-Right group, Nathaniel McCloskey is scarily real, charismatic, but manipulative and driven by hate. His sister-in-law, Kelly (Elle Hudson, bringing splinters of humour to the taut 60 minutes), taunts the exasperated Shanti with ridiculous threats of legal action. Kelly’s son Jack (a terrifying Louis Cavalier), perhaps, is an omen of the future, groomed by his uncle and social media in equal measures.
Only Jack’s father, Russell (a heartfelt performance by Perry Brookes), slowly dying of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, seems halfway decent, regretting his behaviour of the past, seeking some kind of peace for his limited days ahead. Caught somewhere in the middle of the sparring factions, he could be a symbol of a dying breed, that is, until his past is fully revealed. For such a short play, this family is strongly constructed.
If only the Black characters had the same depth to them, then Savva’s play would be ready to move on to bigger stages. At the moment, Marshy, Jon and Shanti have no arcs to their stories. Marshy (Jak Banks) is impossibly calm while Jon (a woefully underused Ayomide Adegun) shouts and circles around the family. Shanti (Renee Bel-Momodu) surrenders her impartiality a little too quickly. Only the shop’s owner (Layla Chowdhury) has some semblance of a backstory on this side.
However, Savva admits that the piece, developed through Omnibus Theatre’s Elevate Programme and Theatre Peckham’s Young, Gifted & Talented Writers Programme, is still in progress. More rewriting might also sort out the confusing and abrupt ending. Likewise, it’s clear on which side of the fence that Savva stands, but a little more nuance wouldn’t go amiss. Only Russ is given layers of good and bad.
But Savva and Theatre Peckham are to be commended for making theatre about urgent, topical issues when so many venues up and down the country continue to present middle-class plays about middle-class people dealing with middle-class issues. Finely acted and expertly directed, The Infinite Colours on The Drink Aisle is certain of a future.
Runs until 19 May 2026
Peckham Fringe runs until 5 June 2026
