You will have heard of Joan of Arc and you will know all about Boudicca, but if you were educated in a British school you will probably know next to nothing about Yaa Asantewaa, a 20th-century woman warrior of Ghana's Asante people. In March 1900 she led her people, an army of thousands, against the British colonial forces in Ghana, who were intent on subjugating the Asante and seizing the Golden Stool, a symbol of Asante unity and sovereignty that legend claimed had miraculously descended from the heavens in the 17th century. The stool was considered the soul of the Asante nation and British attempts to take it were seen as sacrilege.
All this, plus Yaa Asantewaa's triumph, defeat and exile in the Seychelles, is told in this production that comes across as a hybrid of carnival and the Royal Tournament. The director is Geraldine Connor, whose Carnival Messiah, inspired by Handel's Messiah, was a huge success. But here she sets herself a stiffer task and the evening doesn't always balance the demands of storytelling, drama and spectacle.
With most of the narrative out of the way, the second half perks up considerably and both cast and audience have a good time. This is a show with rhythm, and the drumming, dancing and singing all raise the roof. There is some brilliant mask work, and Connor knows how to create vivid set-pieces: the scenes of exile in a Seychelles of golden palm trees are spectacular and send you out of the theatre on a high.
But the spectacle alone is not enough to carry an evening that promises something more. It needs a more incisive script, more shape and more moments of real drama like Yaa Asantewaa's betrayal, which is done as simply and beautifully as a photograph being taken. At the moment it feels like a fringe show writ large, albeit one that is performed with heart and soul by the cast, the Adzido Pan-African Dance Ensemble and the Pan-African Orchestra.
Until May 19. Box office: 0113-213 7700.
