Thank heavens for a playwright who is prepared to wade into controversial issues but refuses to tell the audience what to think. May Sumbwanyambe's play, set in Zimbabwe in the late 1990s, has plenty of conflict and emotion but also a sense of perspective. It embraces the possibility that in this clash between a white farming family and a black government over land, both sides have a certain amount of right on their side.
Independence, to Guy the farmer, his wife Kathleen and daughter, has been the name of their highly prized farm for more than two generations. But when Charles, a black official with a briefcase, turns up one day with an offer they can't refuse -- to sell the farm to the government at a knock-down price, it reopens a series of raw family rifts. The fear of rural gangs rampaging through white-owned farms and taking them by force, as they did in late 1990s Zimbabwe, gives the play a powerful sense of tension.
The production at the Arcola theatre by the excellent Papatango company benefits from very assured direction by George Turvey and four well-judged performances that never go over the top. Stefan Adegbola (Charles), Peter Guinness (Guy), Sandra Duncan (Kathleen) and Beatriz Romilly (daughter Chipo) not only get the southern African accents right, but convey a sense of place and time with great plausibility. Of the four characters, Chipo, bearer of a Shona name, is the most confrontational. Romilly plays her as a young woman burning with rage but not sure whether she wants to confront her mother or Charles. She is the most intriguing character of the four.
As someone who spent three happy years working as a journalist in Zimbabwe in the late 1980s, I can vouch for the general authenticity of the play, though it's possible that Zimbabweans with memories of the 1990s might be more critical. Sumbwanyambe, born in the UK to Zambian emigrant parents, explores the multiple colonial identities of both black and white with great analytical skill. There are a few clunky lines he has written that don't seem right in the characters' mouths: 'Why must you always be so strong?' asks Kathleen of her daughter. 'Why must you always be so weak?' replies Chipo. I don't think this has the historical sweep of Lorraine Hansberry's Les Blancs, but it tells a powerful story well in 80 minutes.
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