Reviews 2010
Reviews 2010
✭✭✭✭✩
written by Binyavanga Wainaina, Roland Schimmelpfennig & Christina Anderson; directed by Ross Manson, Liesl Tommy & Josette Bushell-Mingo
Volcano Theatre, Fleck Dance Theatre, Toronto
June 15-19, 2010
The Africa Trilogy is a triple bill of three plays commissioned by Volcano Theatre from an international group of artists whose subject matter is the relation of Africa today with the West. The first two plays are breath-taking in performance, structure and style. The third is not.
First up is Shine Your Eye by Kenyan playwright Binyavanga Wainaina directed by Volcano founder, Ross Manson. The story follows a young Kenyan woman Gbene Beka (Dienye Waboso in a bright, winning performance), who goes to work for a Nigerian e-mail scam in Lagos. Is she compromising the heroic principles of her late father? Wainaina is one of those rare playwrights who can give the colloquial language the sound of poetry. Manson wonderfully integrates video, movement and hip-hop in an eye-opening tale about how the modern world has impacted Africa.
Next is Peggy Pickit Sees the Face of God by German playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig directed by South African-born Liesl Tommy. The play gives the familiar subject of the dinner party gone wrong an unusual twist. Frank and Liz (Tony Nappo and Jane Spidell) are hosting Martin and Carol (Trey Lyford and Maev Beaty) on their return from six years of medical work in Africa. The relationships of both couples have soured, but Martin and Carol have experienced a kind of horror in Africa that Western do-gooders like Frank and Liz ensconced in their comfortable lives cannot possibly imagine. Schimmelpfennig’s technique is to pause the action for comments from one of the four characters, jump backwards a few minutes and and then play the action forward until the next pause. This requires the utmost in timing and movement skills that the ensemble delivers with amazing finesse.
Last, and unfortunately least, is GLO by American Christina Anderson directed by Josette Bushell-Mingo of Britain. Its subject is Kenyan author Lydia (Dorothy A. Atabong), who leaves her brother (Araya Mengesha) alone in bad company back home to attend a conference in New York. Theoretically, this should be a good finale to the triple bill because, unlike the previous plays, it jumps locations between Africa and North America and mingles black and white actors. Anderson’s play, however, seems unfinished and its plot-line unconvincing. Bushell-Mingo’s direction, especially compared with the previous two, seems haphazard and messy. Volcano would have a more successful evening if it simply jettisoned GLO to create a diptych since those first two plays are the most exciting I’ve seen so far this year.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye weekly 2010-06-17
Photo: Cast of The Africa Trilogy.
2010-06-17
The Africa Trilogy