Dolphins and Sharks, theatre review: Spirited show from a name to watch

In the summer, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins gave us one taste of New York working life in Gloria at Hampstead Theatre. Now here comes a second from another one-to-watch African-American playwright, James Anthony Tyler. Instead of Jacobs-Jenkins’s New Yorker-style magazine, here we’re in a Harlem copy shop, a place where morale isn’t high, the wages are lower and racial tensions among the African-American and Latino employees bubble away under the surface.

Lydia Parker’s production starts with an arresting image: the five-strong cast arrive onstage in the manner of prisoners in a chain gang. It’s a foretaste of themes to come, but first there’s Yusuf (Ammar Duffus), a recent NYU philosophy graduate, desperate for any job that will so much as acknowledge his application.

He’s taken on, in what looks like the most overstaffed small shop going, to work alongside witty, fast-talking Isabel (lovely work from Shyko Ammos) and Xiomara (Rachel Handshaw), determined to prove herself in this job to make up for the college education she was denied.

Tyler’s writing is spirited but schematic; Xiomara’s promotion to store manager brings about a change in attitude towards her erstwhile friends that isn’t exactly subtle. Yet Tyler has much of worth to say, about social status and economic expectation, about race and racism. Remember the name: we’ll be hearing more from him.

Until Sept 30, Finborough Theatre; finboroughtheatre.co.uk