Citizens Theatre, Glasgow
Four stars
A big red-brick inner city construction with towers of suitcases dotted
across the stage becomes adventure playground, sanctuary and accidental
prison for the fourteen year old boy at the heart of Lemn Sissay's
stage adaptation of Benjamin Zephaniah's teenage novel. At times it
looks like home, as Alem attempts to fit in with London's
multi-cultural diaspora, from his foster family the Fitzgeralds to
hyper-active bully Sweeney and his new best friend, Mustapha. At others
it's as lonely as a prison cell, with Alem yearning for his own
parents, caught in the crossfire of the Eritrean/Ethiopian war he's
fled from.
From flash-backs of Alem and his father gazing up at the North Star to
a first experience of snow with the Fitzgeralds' daughter Ruth and
discovering that very English chronicler of orphans, Charles Dickens,
Alem embarks on an unflinchingly cruel rites of passage. While the
judgement passed by social workers and lawyers inspires protest,
external forces make matters even worse.
There's depth and weight to Gail McIntyre's production for West
Yorkshire Playhouse that takes its subject seriously while remaining
thoroughly theatrical, as the cast of six navigate their way around
Emma Williams' set. For all its impassioned heart and soul, there's a
righteous but understated poetry that pulses through a street-smart but
still fragile piece that never falls back on polemic. This is embodied
in Fisayo Akinade's performance as Alem, who seems to grow in stature
with each experience in a humbling and all too human play. Arriving at
the Citz hard on the heels of David Greig and Cora Bissett's Glasgow
Girls, this is theatre at its most engagingly crucial.
The Herald, March 15th 2014
ends
Comments