Last Updated on November 26, 2025
A forgotten ’70s masterpiece tailored to modern woes
When Michael Abbensetts’ play Alterations first premiered at Hampstead’s New End Theatre in 1978, Britain had not yet appointed its first black MP. Unrepresented in government, and underrepresented on the stage, was the environment for Black Britons in which the British Guiana (now Guyana) born Abbensetts wrote Alterations. Despite the play possessing glittering wit and pointed social commentary, Abbensetts’ work has been obscured by history, only coming to the fore recently due to work from the National Theatre’s Black Plays Archive. Now at the Lyttelton for its biggest-ever staging by director Lynette Linton, with additional material from Trish Cooke, this fiery comedy feels all too modern.
Alterations is about tailoring. Well actually, it is about trying to be a tailor. Walker has finally secured the contract, an agreement to hem a seemingly endless supply of trousers, that will allow him to buy the small shop in which he has built his tailoring business. But the people in Walker’s life seem sceptical, they don’t really believe this will be Walker’s golden opportunity. A play about motivation, livelihoods and Caribbean culture, Alterations is ultimately a comedy, but one that deals honestly with broken promises and the price of ambition.
In Lynette Linton’s production, style is as important as anything else. Not only do the costumes from designer Frankie Bradshaw ooze cool, but the cast’s sharp performances also give the production an edge. Arinzé Kene’s interpretation of Walker is filled with bounding, restless energy, but one that is wrapped up in a signature old-fashioned charm. Walker’s colleague Buster, played by Gershwyn Eustache Jr., though far more grounded than his partner, is enjoyably cynical and extremely quick. Together, the pair make a tense but trusty team, even when crisis hits in the form of Walker’s rival, Horace, expertly portrayed by Karl Collins.
The highlight of this production, however, is Cherrelle Skeete’s performance as Darlene, Walker’s wife and the mother of his child. Fed up with playing second fiddle to Walker’s business, Darlene’s struggle to take care of their child drives much of the play’s emotional drama. In Skeete’s hands, Darlene is not just a spurned wife but – much like Walker himself – she is also a dreamer and an optimist. In the end, she is fated to be subject to the arrogance of men. Darlene rages against the decisions she is forced to make for the sake of her daughter, at least partly because they are pragmatic ones.
For a modern audience, of course, this play has certain sad truths that would not have been present in 1978. The knowledge of what large-scale international companies have done to local businesses and the knock-on effects of fast-fashion, cheap labour and poor-quality clothing contributes to the play’s cynicism. This uneasy knowingness is partly encapsulated by Courtney, a van driver and a much younger character than the rest of the cast. Portrayed brilliantly by Raphel Famotibe, his worries about his own future and the futures of other young people in Britain were both deeply moving and cuttingly relatable.
Although Linton’s production is certainly engaging (and brought to us by a stellar cast), it is not flawless. Glimpses of the future feel unevenly distributed and slightly out of place, as did some of the emphasis on certain scenes and dialogues. No doubt many will also take against the decision to stage the production with no interval, a long hour and fifty-minute stretch, but in truth, the energy was buoyant enough to sustain interest throughout the production.
Although patchy in parts, this production of Alterations is as good a chance as any to introduce yourself to Abbensetts’s lightning-paced prose. This play has the power to give you stitches, but it will be the tears that get you in the end.
Alterations
National Theatre
Upper Ground,
London
SE1 9PX
Run time: 1hr 50 minutes (no interval)
Alterations runs until 5th April 2025
Tickets here.
Looking for something different? We recommend The Score, currently showing at The Theatre Royal, Haymarket
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