From left, Jason Barnett, Kadiff Kirwan, Simon-Anthony Rhoden. *Images - Helen Murray*

‘The Hot Wing King’ by Katori Hall tells the story of four gay Black men preparing to compete in the annual Hot Wing Contest in Memphis, Tennessee. (Directed by Roy Alexander Weise, at the National Theatre, London until 14 September)

Cordell: I got that Lemon Pepper Wet. That Lemon Pepper Dry. Dem Suicides: Hot-Hot and HOT! Them Blueberry Birds and even…some Parmesans.

Cordell (Kadiff Kirwan) is the gifted, driven head chef, with a new recipe that he hopes will earn them this year’s hot chicken crown.

Cordell: Spicy. Cajun. Alfredo. With Bourbon Infused. Crumbled. Bacon.

His crew, the New Wing Order, also includes his partner Dwayne (Simon-Anthony Rhoden), an overworked manager at a local hotel; laid back barber Big Charles (Jason Barnett); and camp fashion victim Isom (Olisa Odele).

Cordell: Isom, make sho you stir counter-clockwise and scrape the bottom after every five minutes. The key to the Crutchfield recipe is smoke. And lots of it.

Cordell needs to instil some discipline and determination in his friends, if they are to reach their goal.

Cordell: I just need y’all to be focused now. I for one am tired of losing. The New Wing Order been trying fuh five years and ain’t never won the top prize. But these folks gone learn tomorrow.

And so, they diligently soak hickory chips, flash fry bacon, chop and marinade wings. And they get acquainted with Cordell’s secret ingredient.

Big Charles: Wooooooo, bwoy, who woulda thunk a pepper straight harvested from the bush of western Uganda is the secret to the Crutchfield recipe… It might not taste like nothing at first. But the moment that heat hit, the seeds leak that peli-peli oil and burn all the way through the marinade… Well, I know where I need to go when the aliens come. This peli-peli fuck they ass up.

Gradually, we get to know the characters through their cooking and conversation. And we learn that there are underlying tensions at play. Cordell has recently left his wife and two sons in St Louis to move in with Dwayne. He is haunted by a sense of failure as a father, and, as yet unable to find work in Memphis, he is uneasy with his dependency on Dwayne. To make matters more complicated, Dwayne’s troubled nephew is also keen to take up residence.

Cordell: I’m one part selfish, two parts stubborn and one part…scared.

The discussion around the kitchen counter drifts seamlessly between the frivolous and the profound. They chat about basketball, try on Hawaiian shirts decorated with chicken wings, and break into a joyous song and dance routine to Luther Vandross’s ‘Never Too Much’. They also consider family, fatherhood and masculinity; sexuality, grief and guilt.

Cordell: Thass when I knew that there was someone on this earth strong enough to hold me. All of me. All the pieces. All the shards…
Big Charles: Must be nice for someone to know you like that.
Cordell: It ain’t. They know all your cracks. Where to press to make you cave in on yo’self.
Big Charles: And where to put the superglue, I reckon.

I was quite taken with a comment made by Isom, when the tensions between Cordell and Dwayne are threatening to boil over.

Isom: As my mama say – Don’t sit so close to the TV… Meaning, you gotta sit back and let a picture come into view.

This is sound advice. In life and work we can sometimes get too involved in a conundrum, too immersed in the detail. We look closer, dive deeper, think harder. But the solution eludes us.

Often it’s worth stepping back, taking a breath, accommodating some context. The best Strategists don’t just grapple with the particulars of a problem. They also take into account broader cultural and social change, adjacent circumstances and accompanying conditions. They let a picture come into view.

As Cordell observes towards the end of this splendid play, the best ideas can come when you least expect them.

Cordell: What is a mistake, but merely a new dream, a frontier untamed, a sweet discovery? In this case, a flavor yet to be tasted.

'I can't fool myself, I don't want nobody else to ever love me.
You are my shining star, my guiding light, my love fantasy.
There's not a minute, hour, day or night that I don't love you.
You're at the top of my list 'cause I'm always thinking of you.
I still remember in the days when I was scared to touch you,
How I spent my day dreaming, planning how to say I love you.
You must have known that I had feelings deep enough to swim in,
That's when you opened up your heart and you told me to come in.
Oh, my love,
A thousand kisses from you is never too much.
I just don't wanna stop.
Oh, my love,
A million days in your arms is never too much.
I just don't wanna stop.
Too much, never too much, never too much, never too much.’

Luther Vandross, 'Never Too Much’

No. 483