Last Updated on February 19, 2026
A hip-hop-infused epic with timely resonance
4.0 out of 5.0 starsActor and playwright Chadwick Boseman is internationally known for his 2018 role in Marvel’s Black Panther blockbuster. Boseman died in 2020, two months before George Floyd was suffocated by Derek Chauvin, a Minnesotan police officer, sparking the global Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. While Boseman’s play, Deep Azure, was written over a decade before Floyd’s murder, it speaks loudly to a post-BLM world in which ICE agents patrol US cities, normalising racialised violence. Making its UK debut at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Deep Azure is inspired by another police murder – that of Prince Jones, a young Black man killed in Fairfax, Virginia, in 2000. Delivered entirely in verse, Deep Azure is a drama of love and friendship with profound contemporary relevance.
Deep, played by Jayden Elijah (Saint X), is a student, wise beyond his years, set on joining a seminary, who’s suddenly killed by a policeman. Torn apart by the tragedy, Azure – Deep’s partner – and Roshad and Tone, his closest friends, are thrown onto individual trajectories of mourning, confusion and anger.
Azure (Selina Jones – KAOS) spirals further into an eating disorder, an outlet for her guilt, love and self-destruction, reading Deep’s notebooks, raging at establishment failings. Roshad, portrayed by Justice Ritchie (Human Nurture) devotes himself to local protests – he’s rageful, bewildered and committed to revenge. Tone (Elijah Cook – The Veil), who works as a police agent, is a more secretive figure, encouraging his friends to have faith in the justice system.
Deep Azure twists between these central characters as they grapple with loss and injustice. Deep returns as a kind of apparition, reliving shared memories, replaying the night of his murder, and offering nuggets of wisdom. The play is loaded with sharp, rhythmical dialogue, alarming scenes of violence and shocking plot twists. From the start, there’s a mobile hip-hop ensemble who dance, sing and beatbox with the protagonists.
Boseman’s writing expertly turns classical Shakespearean verse to modern subject matter. “The afterbirth of death” is his unsettling definition of the play’s essence; Deep Azure is replete with similarly striking lyrical offerings.
What works in the play is its imperceptible transitions between music and dialogue. Deep Azure inhabits a kind of echo chamber where the boundaries between songs and speech break down. Director Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu (TIMBUKTU) achieves dynamic, whole-cast routines without hampering the more intimate interactions between individual characters. The a cappella soundscape ties every scene into a musical ecosystem that elevates every beat. The action hums like a plucked string. The Sam Wanamaker’s compact interior was expanded by the movements and voices of the actors.
Boseman’s script proves the enduring power of iambic pentameter to shape the most politically important narratives. Verse dialogue is not a novelty feature of Deep Azure but its essential glue. Like the Elizabethan drama and hip-hop anthems from which its draws, poetry is both the means and end of the theatrical experience.
Deep Azure’s epic length is the play’s biggest challenge. At two and a half hours, it has time to explore all the minute details of its various narrative strands. While this expansive approach sometimes permits interesting contextual details, it often dilutes narrative impetus. Some scenes, like Azure’s meeting with Deep’s mother, feel beyond the play’s scope. And even the best set-pieces go on too long. A comedic bit where Tone and Roshad watch TV packs punch, but wanes after its initial funny beats.
Deep Azure captures a full anatomy of its central tragedy. It takes an expansive approach to a deeply serious subject – and its merging of classical verse with hip-hop charges the Sam Wanamaker with electricity. The late Chadwick Boseman’s theatrical epic is made for this Shakespearean setting. It’s innovative, demanding theatre that refuses easy conclusions.
Deep Azure runs at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse from 17th February to 18th April.
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
New Globe Walk
London
SE1 9DT
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