The Pulitzer drama prize continues to try and get me back on side, with its 2021 award going to a writer I've liked for a long time, Katori Hall.
The Hot Wing King's take on the hot-button topic of masculinity, and particularly black masculinity, is a refreshingly different one as it centres the action around a found family of gay men: After five years in a long-distance relationship Cordell (Kadiff Kirwan) moved from St Louis to Memphis to be with boyfriend Dwayne (Simon-Anthony Rhoden,) leaving everything behind including a wife and two children. The play takes place over the weekend of the annual Hot Wing Contest, a cook-out Cordell has come close to winning but never quite achieved before, and as ever they're joined by their friends, the flamboyant Isom (Olisa Odele) and more reserved, sports-loving Big Charles (Jason Barnett,) to help them put together the recipes Cordell has perfected over the last year.
