Anyone who saw Big Dada at the Barbican last year will recognise the deliciously named Third World Bunfight's riotous tongue-in-cheek style in this latest piece. But while Big Dada, dedicated to President Mugabe of Zimbabwe, cleverly used the story of Idi Amin to explore the idea of dictatorship in Africa, the purpose of Imumbo Jumbo is far less clear. The satire so lacks sharpness that it is perfectly possible for the audience to take this as a piece of weirdly mutated cultural exotica. That is pretty strange for a company that once produced a show called Ipi Zombi.
The programme quotes the Jungian Dr Vera Bührmann, who argues that "what appears to be irrational is really symbolic and mythical and portrays the lawfulness of the collective psyche". What follows is a story that does indeed veer wildly between the insane and the perfectly sensible. There is something absurdly Fitzcarraldo-like about the quest of Chief Nicholas Tilana Gcaleka, a Xhosa healer and diviner, who, at the behest of the Xhosa chiefs and ancestor spirits, travels to Scotland in search of the skull of King Hintsa kaPhalo, who was killed by British troops in 1836. Gcaleka and the elders believe that without it, South Africa will be faced by calamity.
There are some great moments in a show that fizzes with cartoonish energy and resonates with the sound of a gospel choir. Arriving in Scotland, Gcaleka finds himself constantly pursued by Sky TV, and there is a great exchange between him and the Queen, who comes complete with crown and corgi. He eventually discovers kaPhalo's skull in a remote farm. Unfortunately, when he returns to South Africa, his triumph is short-lived: the scientific experts declare that it belongs to a white middle-aged woman rather than the Xhosa chief.
The publicity suggests that the show is based on a true story, but such is the piece's overall uncertainty of intention that it is difficult to know whether to believe that or simply take it as a joke. And while the show clearly aims to satirise cultural stereotypes, too often it seems to end up merely celebrating them.
· Until July 19. Box office: 0845 120 7550.
