British theater is seeing an exciting surge in young talent. Two standout actors, Thomas Coombes and Paapa Essiedu, are showing us the best of the West End in Death of England: The Plays. Written by Clint Dyer and Roy Williams in 2020 and 2021, specifically for the National Theatre, Death of England is made up of three plays titled Michael and Delroy and Closing Time. Originally performed separately, they are now being shown together. Coombes stars as the title character in Michael, a white working-class Londoner who has an explosive reaction to his father’s death. In Delroy, Essiedu portrays Michael’s best friend and frenemy, an upwardly mobile working-class Black man. He experiences a major life change when he heads to the hospital where his girlfriend Carly is about to give birth. “Both actors bring stand-up comic vitality to tragicomic confessions of racism, masculinity, marginalisation, football, [and] fighting,” writes Dominic Maxwell in The Times. The two plays are running now, soon to be joined by Closing Time, which has Michael’s sister (Erin Doherty), who is also the mother of Delroy’s child, sharing the stage with Delroy’s mother (Sharon Duncan-Brewster). —Jeanne Malle