Danny Sapani as Tshembe Matoseh. Picture credit Johan Persson
WHEN American
playwright Lorraine Hansberry died aged 34 in 1965 she left some of
her work unfinished.
Les Blancs was one such
but thankfully her ex husband Robert Nemiroff finished it.
The play is currently
on at the National Theatre and it is truly an epic production. Full
of intensity and brilliant performances, especially that of Danny
Sapani as Tshembe Matoseh, it is quite simply brilliant.
Directed by multi award
winning director Yael Farber, it is set in a missionary complex in a
fictional African state which is in the middle of an armed struggle
for independence against colonial rule.
Into the dust and heat
come two men. The first is Charlie Morris, an American journalist who
wants to write an account of the mission - populated and led by a
white missionary who has gone missing - and the work it does to help
the indigenous people.
The second is Tshembe
who after having left his people to travel the world, has married a
white British woman, had a son by her and now settled happily in
London, is back to be with his family at his father’s funeral.
But the tension within
the state is rising with an increasing number of shootings, arguments
and lootings and as a consequence, uncertainty and worry about the
future is uppermost in the minds of those who stay at the mission.
Tshembe finds himself
in the middle of this storms, torn between his family and his life
back in England.
And all the while with
tensions rising, and the revolution imminent, it is as though a bomb
is ticking just waiting to explode.
As well as some superb
performances from the likes of James Fleet as Dr Dekoven and Elliot
Cowan as Charlie Morris, the revolving set too is stunning, making it
a production that is both gripping and poignant.
Les Blancs is at the
National Theatre until Friday, June 2. Visit
www.nationaltheatre.org.uk or call the box office on 020 7452 3000
for full listings.
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