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“Little Brother” at Jermyn Street Theatre

It would be a touch perverse, and thankfully difficult, to be uncharitable towards this new play. Based on the memoir by Ibrahima Balde and Amets Arzallus Antia, it tells the story of the former’s journey from Guinea to Europe. In contrast to the tendency to abstract and politicise the topic of immigration, this is a simple story showing life’s unexpected turns at a personal level.

Balde never intended to be an immigrant. His motivation is to search for his little brother, his journey even more shocking and dangerous than you might expect. Balde and Antia provide poetry, but the achievement in Timberlake Wertenbaker’s adaptation is to maintain an air of unvarnished truthfulness. The account is more than a documentary but it has a stark authenticity that makes belief unquestionable. 

Director Stella Powell-Jones does a great job of bringing a story that covers so much time and space to the small stage of Jermyn Street Theatre. There are no fancy touches – they’d seem out of place – just a strong cast and subtle sounds from Falle Noike and Max Peppenheim. The performances are led by Blair Gyabaah, who barely leaves the stage for the 90-minute duration and is supported by Youness Bouzinab, Ivan Oyik, Mo Sesay and Whitney Kehinde, who take on the roles of everyone Balde meets. Kehinde works particularly hard as every woman and has many powerful scenes. For my taste, too much effort is taken to distinguish these different people (with costumes and characteristics) when it is what they do that seems to be the point here. Still, Powell-Jones generates considerable tension as we wonder how each will treat Balde, guessing or dreading whether their response will be good or bad.

Much of the journey is as grim as it gets. Balde is homeless, kidnapped, tortured and literally sold. The trauma from events is described articulately without being dwelt upon. And there is also a lightness to the show that is remarkable. The script, and Gyabaah, expertly tread a fine line, showing an acceptance of events without a resignation about them. Throughout, it is emphasised that the people met are like you and me, drawing the audience in and quietly interrogating us. And a lot the encounters are good. The acts of kindness, big and small, begrudging or unquestioned, pepper the journey. Charity is the key… and the challenge presented.

Until 21 June 2025

www.jermystreettheatre.co.uk

Photos by Steve Gregson

2015

“Our Country’s Good” at the National Theatre

An undisputed modern classic, Timberlake Wertenbaker’s play explores politics, power and the potential of theatre. Its setting is an 18th-century Australian penal colony, its performers, newly arrived convicts who stage a play. It is a text to spend time with and Nadia Fall’s revival presents the ideas with great clarity. But it should also be a work that entertains and invigorates, and, here, this production lacks consistency.

The show looks great, with Peter McKintosh’s design a mix of Aboriginal art and Anish Kapoor, creating a sense of heat and tension. But this show is a cold affair, distinctly lacking humour and failing to exploit the text’s many ironies. Fall’s pacing slows and rushes – possibly because so much music is introduced. Cerys Matthews, making her theatrical debut as a composer, creates a diverse soundscape with snatches of songs you never hear enough of to enjoy.

There are credible performances from the lead: Jason Hughes plays the soldier tasked with directing the convicts and Caoilfhionn Dunne is the prisoner who becomes his leading lady. It’s a shame there isn’t more sexual tension between their characters – an element missing throughout the show which could have added considerable drama.

Productions often have actors doubling up roles to perform as both guard and prisoner – Fall has a larger crew but the play doesn’t benefit from bigger numbers. Disappointingly, with some of the cast, there is a sense of fighting for attention that should have been checked. The actors that do stand out give the most generous and controlled performances: Ashley McGuire’s down-to-earth Dabby Bryant and Peter Forbes’ bullish Major.

The later acts are better; the violence in the colony is bravely depicted and that raises the stakes. But what might have countered this brutality – camaraderie between the players and what little joy their common humanity affords them – isn’t given its proper place. That the show goes on and the prisoners perform doesn’t leave us as elated as it should.

Until 1 October 2015

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

Photo by Simon Annand

2013

“Our Country’s Good” at the St James Theatre

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Since its première at the Royal Court in 1988 Timberlake Wertenbaker’s play, Our Country’s Good, has been widely recognised as a modern classic. This production, coming from the show’s original director, Max Stafford-Clark, has a fine pedigree that makes it a revival not to miss.

The story of Australian convicts and their keepers who put on a play is a rich text that works on many levels. It’s easy to see why it has been adopted on to many a school syllabus. To the fore for Stafford-Clark is the theme that theatre has transcendent qualities that can transform its participants.

The hard-labouring cast take on a variety of roles playing prisoners, soldiers and the actors they become when putting on the play. As the lines they perform and different roles they take on become multi-layered, the cast maintains clarity and, under Stafford-Clark’s skilful hand, builds humour and tension.

Special note must go to Ian Redford who seems barely off the stage and makes each of his roles shine. If the play has a lead, it’s Matthew Needham playing Captain Collins, who becomes the director of a company of convicts, learning lessons about himself along the way. Needham brings a directness to the role that ensures its appeal.
Much of the humour in the play comes from theatrical in-jokes, but the play is strongest when it deals with bigger themes such as the plight of the female convicts, scarred by their transportation and forced into prostitution to survive. Wertenbaker’s writing has real bite here, and the performances, especially from Kathryn O’Reilly who plays the formidable Liz Morden, and Lisa Kerr as Duckling Smith, are superb.

At a time when his own excellent company, Out of Joint, is victim to savage cuts in funding, Stafford-Clark has drawn parallels with the current government and the philistinism of the Thatcher-era. Indeed, the transformative power of theatre seems especially important at a time when arts funding is under such pressure, despite the industry’s undoubted success. Our Country’s Good itself could easily serve as an example of how great British theatre can be: a superbly written play with brilliant performances and masterful direction.

Until 23 March 2012

www.stjamestheatre.co.uk

Photo by Robert Workman

Written 5 February 2013 for The London Magazine