Review: ‘ALL MIXED UP’ by Jack & Antonia

An honest take on messing up with good intentions

‘Is he yours?...’ This is the central question and motif of Jack & Antonia’s ‘ALL MIXED UP,’ which taps into the connective tissues of heritage in contemporary, multicultural Britain and its colonial histories. Do you ‘own’ your loved ones? Does a country ‘belong’ to anyone? The play’s motif also raises questions on ‘ownership’ through this lens.

The stage is set with a sheet suspended by cables, lit with green and purple lights and scored by soft reggae. A Black man (Jack Benjamin) with sunglasses emerges above the sheet (now a DJ booth) as the volume of the music increases, plunging us into Notting Hill Carnival, circa 2010. A white woman (Antonia Mellows, wearing a feathered head piece with a Jamaican flag draped around her shoulders rushes in. She excitedly asks the audience, drawing us close: ‘Do you see that DJ? Should I go talk to him?’ She dances (exaggeratedly, in jolting Theresa May ‘Dancing Queen’ fashion) downstage of him in a moment of slapstick lightheartedness, and a willing audience laughs along. This is the framing for the first key moment on race: Mellows’ character monologues about how much she is learning about her own ‘white privilege’ in a time that is ‘so progressive’, observing we ‘have Obama’ after all. Yet, that same evening, the lovers are confronted by her flatmate’s racist assumptions on the nature of Benjamin’s presence in their flatshare, wailing sirens heightening the feeling of danger. The irony of this, moments after Mellows’ character’s idealistic speech on progress, the end of racism and spiritual musings on reincarnation, is a biting reminder of the fragility of ‘progress.’ ‘He’s with me,’ Mellows insists.

What follows is a series of such vignettes as the characters face new challenges of parenting a mixed-race, dual-heritage child. Through interludes, we hear radio coverage of the protests over George Floyd’s murder and ‘Black Lives Matter’ over 2020, backlash over migrants and recent shifts toward nationalism. Set against these larger political currents are everyday microaggressions (while shopping, at the playground, in public spaces) which, with regular occurrence, become part of the drumbeat of parenting in melting-pot Croydon.  

Benjamin and Mellows command the stage with charming wit and vulnerability, made even more apparent in the Front Room’s close quarters. There is a directness in their gaze as they address the audience, which adds a deeper seriousness to the comedic sheen of ‘ALL MIXED UP.’ There are clever transformations of the sheet, such as its lowering to wrap around the actors as covers in the first scene change. This set piece also serves as a phone screen background to symbolise live Tweets, a dressing room barrier and a museum gallery. 

‘Will this show solve our problems? It’s likely we won’t,’ sings Benjamin. Perhaps solutions are not the point, anyway. There is a particularly poignant moment when the sheet is lowered – as if a flag – then ceremoniously flipped and raised again, revealing a spiraling pattern of three shades of hands holding toys, paints, and an iPad. Benjamin and Mellows clasp hands in front of this mural: an image of commitment and defiance. It’s hard not to see this as a variation of the raised fist, a generational symbol of resistance to oppression. It is also interesting to consider how Mellows’ character’s gender intersects with her whiteness – the racism the couple encounters has a sexist dimension: Whose responsibility is it to confront the nationalist, male neighbour? Why do strangers assume Mellows’ character is a single mum? 

‘ALL MIXED UP’ offers audiences a front-row seat to this periphery and does well not to promise any solutions. The show succeeds in demonstrating the complexity of intersectional issues – class, race, heritage and gender – and moves beyond tropes of white saviourism to honestly comment on messing up with the best of intentions. It is a realist portrait of contemporary parenting and a love letter to multicultural Britain. 

‘ALL MIXED UP’ was performed on 10 October at The Front Room as part of Croydonites Festival of New Theatre 2025.