There is abundant charm, humour and a pointed sense of play fuelling Femi Elufowoju Jr’s musical drama re-centring the narratives around Africa. Its charisma is reminiscent of his previous rollicking production at this venue, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, which featured some of the same actors.
This is not as successful, despite its infectiousness. Ultz’s set design is loose, initially bearing a coffin at its centre. The premise is that 11 travellers must embark on a quest across all 54 nations in Africa within a week, spurred on by ancestral mother Mama Africa (Suzette Llewellyn). It is not altogether clear what will happen if they fail despite the symbolic coffin; the play does not dwell on raising the stakes. The job of the characters is to “demystify and justify” the continent.
Based on writer-director Elufowoju’s own travels, the collective odyssey encompasses personal, political, social and even environmental history along with myth and ideas around belonging. Spoken scenes are accompanied by interludes of exuberant song and dance. The performers are always entertaining: Munashe Chirisa oozes comic talent as a shopkeeper in Uganda and a traffic warden in Seychelles; Liana Cottrill is an astounding dancer; The Ganda Boys (Denis Mugagga and Daniel Sewagudde) weave music around scenes; while Elufowoju, following an illness in the cast, does a fine job of reading a part.
We briefly hear about the colonial history of Cameroon and at one passport control, an officer challenges a traveller’s dual African/British identity. We sweep reverentially into Robben Island, briefly stopping inside Nelson Mandela’s former cell, and push through to Tunisia and a bristling encounter in Libya.
Sometimes it is hard to work out what is happening. Scenes are often brief – giving little time to connect with characters – and heavy-handed in their messages. The drama feels baggy and more like sketches or riffs that contain little tension, story or characterisation. Maybe it is a deliberate endeavour to disrupt or diverge from a – western? – dramatic narrative so it is not led by these traditional elements.
What takes their place is joyful but broad-brush, maybe too ambitious in what it is trying to achieve. Where it shares the same inventive staging and bubbling joy as The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, there is little of its magnificent storytelling, despite the 11 adventuring storytellers.
• At the Arcola theatre, London, until 12 July
