Four Hundred Pounds

Synopsis

A dilapidated squatters’ building in 1970s England, where the click of pool balls echoes through peeling walls

Bees and Tecee, two Black immigrant friends, hover over a battered pool table, their former lives as mechanic and race car driver now distant memories. When Tecee deliberately misses a £400 winning shot, Bees erupts in fury, unleashing a torrent of frustration. Tecee’s newfound religious fervour and dreams of becoming an architect collide violently with Bees’ bitter pragmatism, igniting a powder keg of tension that threatens to obliterate their friendship.

Through a symphony of rich patois and raw emotion, the play dissects the systemic racism and suffocating lack of opportunity faced by Black immigrants in 1970s Britain. The grimy pool hall becomes a crucible where masculinity, faith, and cultural identity clash and meld. As Bees and Tecee grapple with their diverging paths, the play weaves a poignant tale of generational conflict, economic disenfranchisement, and the agonising search for purpose in a hostile world.