THEATRE REVIEW: THE AFRICA TRILOGY
16 Jun'10

‘Africa Trilogy’ sparks hope

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
Rating: 5 out of 5

For centuries it's been known as the dark continent, and with every new story out of Africa, it seems to get darker as Pestilence, War, Famine and Death ride untrammeled across its breadth, leaving ethnic hatred, bad government, disease and corporate excess in their wake. But in a world where it is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness, Volcano Theatre lights three, in teaming up with Harbourfront Centre on a new work.

Titled THE AFRICA TRILOGY, it features, not surprisingly, three plays from three playwrights, directed by three directors and it's running at the Fleck Dance Theatre through Sunday -- a part of the ongoing Luminato Festival.

Fittingly, the first play, SHINE YOUR EYE, written by Binyavanga Wainaina, is set in Africa -- in Nigeria, to be precise -- where the young daughter of a murdered activist tries to find her way through the tragedy consuming her country, in the wake of the discovery of oil deposits that spew more curses than blessings. Under the strong direction of Volcano's Ross Manson, a cast that includes Lucky Onyekachi Ejim, Karen Robinson, Dienye Waboso and Muoi Nene confronts many of the problems facing modern-day Nigeria and the forces tearing it apart and give it all a human face. Some of the accents make for rough sledding for the uninitiated, but the effort is worth it, thanks to this hugely competent cast and Manson's muscular, musical staging.

The action then moves to North America as director Liesl Tommy and her cast tackle some complex issues in Roland Schimmelpfennig's PEGGY PICKIT SEES THE FACE OF GOD. In a complex work that manages to be both highly theatrical and anti-theatrical, Schimmelpfennig reunites two couples after a long separation.

Carol (Maev Beaty) and Martin (Trey Lyford) have just returned from Africa where they've been doing medical work for the past six years, while Frank (Tony Nappo) and Liz (Jane Spidell) have stayed home and started a family. When they meet, all four of them are troubled by far more than the unknown fate of a young girl Carol and Martin took in during their Africa sojourn, who Frank and Liz then helped to support.

This is a strange, sprawling sort of work, packed so chock full of convictions and ideas that finally, no stage can contain it. And even though Tommy doesn't solve all the problems in a script that bears more than a passing, messy resemblance to Albee's VIRGINIA WOOLF -- re-written for liberals of the 21st century -- she and her talented cast (with particular kudos to the distaff) tackle it with such artistry, enthusiasm and conviction that one is prepared to forgive them for almost anything.

The evening ends with Christina Anderson's GLO, directed by Josette Bushell-Mingo, a play which splits its time between the slums of Africa and the salons of liberal New York, where people come together to try to sort out the problems plaguing Africa and her people. Through the eyes of one successful author (Dorothy A. Atabong) we see not just the reality of life in a squalid African slum, but the mantle of victimhood otherwise good-hearted people want her to wear. Milton Barnes and Araya Mengesha join Beaty, Lyford and Nene to round out the cast.

All three plays take place on the same basic, high-tech set, beautifully designed by Teresa Przybylski and lit by Bonnie Beecher, with Thomas Ryder Payne supplying the music and video projections by fettFilm.

When it comes to transforming a continent, THE AFRICA TRILOGY won't change dark into light, but somewhere in its three-and-a-half-hour span, you will see faint flickerings of hope -- real hope for a change, and not manufactured.