In his directorial debut This Bitter Earth, Billy Porter lacks his usual confident flair and originality

Omari Douglas stars in an old-fashioned two-hander about a relationship as it builds then disintegrates

Omari Douglas (right) plays Jesse, a self-hating Black playwright (Tristram Kenton)

One of the nicest things about achieving a certain level of fame is (I’d imagine) that you can attempt pretty much any creative feat you set your mind to. Critics don’t like it? Well, you’ve got nothing to prove. Billy Porter certainly knows his way around a stage, as a much-loved Broadway leading light, solo singer, and star of voguing series Pose (2018-2021). But his UK directorial debut lacks his usual confident flair: it’s a deeply felt but clumsily staged two-hander about an interracial gay relationship on the rocks.

Its star, Omari Douglas, has followed up his breakout role in Channel 4’s It’s A Sin (2021) with some pretty meaty West End stage roles, including Cabaret, Constellations and A Little Life. So, it’s a little surprising to see him in a production that feels quite so ramshackle – awkwardly pushing around scuffed stage blocks and fumbling about with a bedsheet, as a projection screen plays what looks an awful lot like a Noughties music visualiser graphic. Or perhaps his involvement isn’t so surprising; on paper, this story sounds like a decent idea, even if the execution falls short.

Playwright Harrison David Rivers sets his story a decade ago, when the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement was gathering pace. Douglas plays Jesse, a self-hating Black playwright who won’t engage with the protests that are breaking out against police violence. His white boyfriend Neil (Alexander Lincoln) is baffled by his seeming indifference: as a BLM activist, he’s not afraid to grab the megaphone at a march and risk speaking over the people he’s meant to be speaking up for.

There is a lot of potentially interesting stuff in here about how racial tensions can corrode relationships. Confident, wealthy Neil glosses over Jesse’s anxieties about the differences in their backgrounds – while Jesse internalises them, labouring exhaustingly for the approval of Neil’s bougie parents, and awkwardly avoiding his white activist friends.

Douglas has an endearingly nervy energy as Jesse: “I’m the nicest person I know,” he says, goofily, when Neil needles him. But this play doesn’t give him much to work with underneath that nice guy exterior. Like Nick Payne’s much-staged 2012 hit Constellations and Benedict Lombe’s brilliant, acclaimed 2024 play Shifters, This Bitter Earth tells the story of a couple’s relationship as it builds then disintegrates, using scenes that skip back and forth through time. Rivers brings fresh themes to this familiar format, without mastering the intricate plotting and thoughtful characterisation it needs to shine. And as the emotional weight of white police violence starts to crack Jesse’s brittle facade, the weakness of Porter’s direction shows.

Porter’s got so much boldness and originality as a performer: he simply exudes theatre when he steps onto the red carpet in a feathered cape or a tuxedo ball gown. It’s just a shame that more of that energy does not find its way into This Bitter Earth – which feels too underpowered and old-fashioned to do justice to the talents it contains.

‘This Bitter Earth’ is on at Soho Theatre until 26 July 2025