Barry Keefe’s 1979 play Sus follows Delroy, a young black man who is informed by the police that his wife is dead and subsequently accused of murdering her. Using a 185-year-old law called ‘Sus’ the police are allowed to take Delroy into custody for 24 hours with nothing more than a suspicion that he committed a crime.

Written in 1979 at the dawn of Thatcherism, Sus is a powerful and politicized cry against the still-current threat of institutional racism. Keeffe pulls no punches with his depiction of a corrupt world which looks all too familiar today.

Sus playwright Keeffe has worked extensively across theatre, television and film, working as writer in residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Soho theatre and writing the screenplay for The Long Good Friday.

Sus director Gbolahan Obisesan has previously worked as Assistant Director on Random (Royal Court) and Impempe Yomlingo / The Magic Flute (Young Vic), a role he will play this year for the National Theatre production of Death And The King’s Horseman.

Sus is a Jerwood Directors Award production.