May Sumbwanyambe’s debut play is a skilful examination of the fraying relations and simmering unrest caused by Mugabe’s 1998 land redistribution programme .
Is being an African dependent on the colour of one’s skin? Is, in essence, a black African more valid than a white one, in today’s post-colonial world?
Such is the satisfyingly thorny nub of May Sumbwanyambe’s notable debut play, about land ownership in Zimbabwe, presented by those remarkable unearthers of new talent, Papatango.
It’s Zimbabwe, 1998, and the Mugabe government’s morally questionable programme of land redistribution from white farmers — “land grabs”, to many — is under way.
Government official Charles (Stefan Adegbola) has arrived with a compulsory purchase order at the remote farm of Guy (Peter Guinness), but Guy and his flinty daughter Chipo (Beatriz Romilly, outstanding) are not going to cede their generations-old home easily.
Sumbwanyambe skilfully offers a series of tense and intense confrontations, nearly always between two of the four characters.
Until May 28 (020 7503 1646,arcolatheatre.com)
