Moody tale of black lives in Depression-era Chicago tries to tell too big a story Big White Fog Almeida Theatre, London N1

Big White Fog has never before been performed in Europe, but is something of a landmark play in America. Written in 1937 by the African-American playwright Theodore Ward, it attempts to show the agony of a black working-class family in Chicago between the 1920s and the early 1930s as its members come up against racism and poverty in their attempts to follow the American dream.

The entire play takes place in the living room of the Mason family. A bow window with stained-glass detail, a formal hat stand in the hall and an archaic gramophone player provide perfect period detail, yet Jonathan Fensom's sepia-tinged design helps to cement the overall sense that this play is, in effect, little more than a period piece.

Victor Mason (Danny Sapani) is a black Chicagoan who, although educated, has been reduced to working as a hod-carrier on building sites. He wants the best for his four children, but he has also pledged his support to the charismatic black leader Marcus Garvey, who is campaigning for black people to "return" to Africa.

In an impassioned speech, Victor claims that Garvey will help "the black man come out of the darkness of failure into the light of achievement with the cloak of human greatness about his shoulders". His two brothers find answers elsewhere: one devotes himself to amassing wealth, the other to the bottle. Impassively, the play proceeds to plot the life of the Masons on its downhill course.

From the outset, when Vic's clever son Lester (Tunji Kasim) receives a mealy-mouthed letter from Kansas University half-promising him a scholarship, it is clear that the Masons are never going to reach the light of achievement. Perhaps it is because this pessimism is established so early on that the play lacks any true sense of dramatic tension.

Watching the likeable Masons, who love their children and even look after old Grandma (Novella Nelson in a great turn as a sly old battleaxe), descend into the despair of poverty and utter abandonment of hope is a thoroughly sad affair, but it is a descent that lacks the stature of grand tragedy. This is not because the personalities are too small; it is almost that they are too large, trying to nail each and every racial problem suffered by black people in America.

As an analysis of racial issues in the interwar years, however, Big White Fog has the ring of authority. The family clings to the hope that its status will be raised by education; Victor speaks of learning as being "like a pair of kneepads. It enables you to crawl through the slime of white prejudice." Naturally, this is only rhetoric. In reality, the Masons' hopes are dashed on racial barriers. Life for them means constant fear of the lynch mob and menial jobs in the drug store or on the Pullman train car. Against this reality, the plumes and uniforms of Marcus Garvey's supporters seem ridiculous, as are their phoney offices. Echoing the empty pomp of the likes of Idi Amin, Victor at one point is created Lord of Agriculture of the Provisional Republic of Africa.

The second half is set ten years later, after the Wall Street crash. Gradually, as the furniture is sold off and the family prepares for life on the street, the physical dimensions of the Mason home seem to get smaller as their options shrink.

Michael Attenborough has chosen an oddly dated play to direct, but, despite the cumbersome historical detail, he manages to create the notion of a slowly suffocating family unit. Particularly impressive is the haunted figure of Ella Mason (Jenny Jules), feverishly clinging to her last few dollars as her children bundle the household crockery into a packing case.

What is the meaning of the play's title? The fog is a metaphor for racial prejudice, denying the black man a clear and productive passage through life. There is no question that such conditions existed, but Ward's play would probably have been better had it given the Masons just a few moments of sunshine.

For further info and booking details visit www.almeida.co.uk

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