The Brown Ranger
Written and performed by Ben Grant
Chichester Festival Theatre, The Nest
Star rating: 3.5
Well it helps, at least at the start, to be steeped in Power Rangers, an American media franchise which originated in Japan in 1993. It proposes the recruitment of a team of sassy, teenagers to fight super-human powers. Each “ranger” wears a distinctive colour coded uniform. But there isn’t a brown one and young, mixed race Thomas (Ben Grant, who also wrote the piece), obsessed with Power Rangers, imagines himself as the Brown Ranger.
Thus we start in the midst of a child’s imaginative game, gradually moving to an account of the racism and issues Thomas contends with as he grows up. Grant is an accomplished actor who takes the audience with him in every situation. He’s good at the gamey, imitative gesturing at the beginning as well as getting inside a troubled, puzzled child. And at the end he’s totally convincing as a young adult uncle helping his nephew to compose a story. I suspect many of the attitudes (people trying to guess where you’re from, calling you unkind names, treating you as a misfit and so on) are almost certainly based on the playwright’s own experience.
The projection and video design (by Douglas Baker) is lively with lots of quite simple special effects such as a nicely wobbly hall of mirrors and lots of digital colour. There’s a witty moment too when we’re on a computer screen with a horizontal bar indicating “loading clothing change” as Grant hops into jeans and shirt, timing it perfectly as the bar reaches 100%. The piece is heavily reliant on voices speaking to Thomas, which I presume Grant recorded himself. It’s all slickly and competently done.
This 60 min production was part of a season of work by participants in CFT’s new Artists Development Programme. Grant is one of eight people on the scheme in this, its inaugural year. The season has, moreover, marked the opening of CFT’s new 122 seater space, The Nest which, err, nestles attractively under pre-existing trees and is to be the focus for fringe, experimental and small scale work. I can report that it’s pleasant, welcoming, comfortable and intimate so I look forward to seeing more shows there.
The Brown Ranger can also be seen at Seven Dials Playhouse, Covent Garden 18-30 November, 2025.
