It is hard to imagine how Lorraine Hansberry's play, set in an African country under British colonial rule where the people are mounting an armed struggle for independence, could be staged with more aplomb than it is here. Equally, it is hard to imagine why anyone would want to stage this clunky, schematic play that offers debate but little drama.
Hansberry, who is best known for A Raisin in the Sun, started to write this play in the early 1960s. It was completed by her ex-husband following her death in 1965. It tells of two brothers returning to their African village for their father's funeral as the country erupts into violence. Tshembe is an intellectual who has travelled the world and been part of the independence struggle abroad; Abiosen has embraced Christianity and dreams of being Africa's first black archbishop.
Near the village is a mission hospital where for 40 years Europeans have dispensed religion and medicine to the locals; here both Tshembe and Abiosen's young half-brother Eric, neither black nor white, help out. It is the hospital that becomes the focus of conflict.
Pretty soon the lines are drawn between white and black, Europe and Africa, one brother and another, with a few characters allowed to loiter on the fence. Every character represents something, whether it is the white, liberal American journalist who believes that talking solves everything or the trigger-happy British army officer whose conceited paternalism manifests itself in more ways than one.
The fact that for centuries Africa has been plundered and that those providing aid can be part of a system of oppression was hardly mentioned on stage 30 years ago. Now, though, even primary school children know something of the scars that colonialism have left on Africa. When Les Blancs was premiered on Broadway in 1970 it was perceived by some as black propaganda, but if anything the difficulty with the play is that it is so even-handed. Hansberry allows everyone his or her say, again and again.
It is beautifully acted, particularly by Paterson Joseph as the brother drawn into revolution, but what might once have seemed radical now only seems heartfelt and lacking in complexity.
Until May 12. Box office: 0161-833 9833.
