Pandora’s Box – review
"You think England is hard? Compared to Nigeria? My dear, you haven’t seen anything yet!"
Immigrant cultural identity and inter-generational conflict may be well -worn themes, but this superb play by Goldsmith’s College writer-in-residence Ade Solanke about a British Nigerian family succeeds in engaging from start to finish.
At times laugh out loud funny, at times heartbreaking, the drama centres around a choice: should British-born single parent Toyin (Anna-Maria Nabirye) accept the place offered to her wannabe gangster teenage son at an elite, disciplinarian Lagos boarding school, as her family and friends beg her to do?
If she leaves him in Nigeria, he may come to resent her decision, as her elder sister is still embittered by their mother’s choice to leave her behind 40 years ago. If she takes him back to London, he may be lost forever in gangland.
Her dilemma exposes the long-held grievances and angst of her family members, and this play is as much about the universal themes of conflict between parents and children as it is about cultural identity.
“But I did what I thought was best for you at the time!” cries her mother in response to her sister’s accusation that she abandoned her as a small girl. “I never knew I would stay so long!”
It is also about raising children and the decisions parents must make. “Nobody has a crystal ball here!” Says Toyin’s friend Bev.
The show’s one weakness is that some of the references to current geopolitical developments feel slightly clumsy and forced in a family drama – who really speaks in lists of facts?
Otherwise, this is a strong script, and brilliant performances by the entire cast (with some spot-on comic timing) make this is essentially a very moving and funny play. Excellent.
Pandora’s Box
Until 26 May 2012
Arcola Theatre
24 Ashwin Street
Dalston
E8 3DL
Performance times: 7.30pm (matinee 3pm)
Tickets: £14 (£10 concessions)
Box office: 020 7503 1646
Many other reviews seem to be a rewrite of the press handout. In fact while watching I was thinking that I am watching a completely different play!
But lets start at the beginning, in Arcola’s Tent. What is it ? Well its a six sided thick tent supporting a square lighting array and having a peak in the centre. It houses 200 seats arranged in a horseshoe shape around the stage. The seats are pretty basic wooden planks and tiered so everyone has a good view of the stage from no more than about 12 feet away at the most.
The tent has a “box office” with a computer on a small desk, a tiny bar and quite good toilets. But its still a tent and you can hear nearby sirens and the wind and if raining hard could be quite noisy.
Now this play, its a comedy and raises a lof of laughs from the audience who were over 90% of “British” Nigerians living and working in the UK, a very few whites and a few more West Indians chasing the “Black Culture”.
Its based on the visit of the “British Nigerians” to Lagos and contrasts the UK and Nigerian lifestyles and values. Its very simply a trick to get the wayward teenage UK son into an expensive private African school where education is valued. He only realises at the very last minute after he has met an old mate who is already at the school and studying for A levels to go on to Harvard.
I did think that Ade wrote in too much hostility towards the school as it seemed to me his mate had already done a good job of convincing him that school and education and a career as a leader of tomorrow was a good thing. So I thought his tirade against his mother for tricking him was overdone. Although of course it added to the drama and overacting so typical of African TV and films. It ends with the son being marched off by the strict headmaster. The family are Yoruba and although I am more familiar with Efik that was no problem because there was only a very little local language used.
The proof of the pudding is how the audience like it. There was not single wrapper worn between them to go to a Nigerian play! That demonstrates to me that they were so very British! But they loved it ! If they loved it then it was so very good. Not to me a serious story, but a comedy based on the differences in life and attitudes between Lagos and London which those from either side will appreciate.
Tony Glazier.