The darkness at the heart of our mobile phones
THERE is plenty wrong with the staging of the Almeida Theatre’s unwieldy new play about the Congo. The story sprawls, the characterisation is skimpy and there is a big hole in the middle of the stage for half the play.
But I knew immediately afterwards that this show was a success. How come? When I went to switch on my mobile telephone, I felt guilty.
Playwright Adam Brace crams endless facts about Congo into this three-hour evening. If his play occasionally has the feel of a lecture, this may be because so few of us in Britain (to our discredit) know anything about that vast swathe of western and central Africa.
I did not even know the name of coltan, one of the minerals mined in eastern Congo — its value being one of the causes of political instability there. Coltan is a vital component in laptops and mobiles. Remember that when you next fire up your phone to make some pointless crack on Twitter. Remember, too, one of Mr Brace’s statistics — that 12 per cent of women living in the Congo have been raped.
He sets much of his story in London, where a posh English woman, Stephanie (excellent Fiona Button), is trying to found a Congo cultural festival.
She wants to raise political awareness of Congo’s problems. We learn that Stephanie spent some time in Africa and had a bad experience.
Congolese expats based in London initially agree to help the festival but they come under pressure from a violent Congo opposition group.
Stephanie also encounters flak from international-aid professionals. This well-intentioned liberal will be damned if she tries to help, damned if she fails. You could almost call it the white woman’s burden.
Michael Longhurst’s in- the-round production is hindered by the small Almeida stage and by the almost continual presence of a strange narrator figure who wears a pink suit.
Richard Goulding plays Stephanie’s implausibly clumsy ex-boyfriend. Several members of the cast speak in Lingala, one of Congo’s languages — translated via surtitles.
The whole thing could probably do with being trimmed of a few scenes and characters. But for all its flaws, the subject matter is arresting and informative.
You may never look at your mobile in quite the same light.