Christopher Haydon’s final production at the Gate typifies the internationalism that has marked his tenure. It is the work of Danai Gurira, a Zimbabwean-American actor and playwright, and boldly confronts the links between Christianity and colonialism. Unusually, it takes a traditional, three-act form and it grips our attention until descending into overheated melodrama.
The period is 1895. The setting is a mission house in Rhodesian Salisbury (now Harare), occupied by Chilford, a black Catholic teacher who is answerable to British colonial power and who has consciously adopted European manners and speech. The action focuses on his latest convert, Jekesai, a young Shona-speaking girl he has helped rescue from a forced marriage and whom he biblically rechristens Ester. Under Chilford’s tutelage, Ester forsakes her family, becomes his protege and the epitome of devout propriety. When anti-colonial riots spread from Bulawayo and the mission is threatened, Ester is forced to decide where her loyalties ultimately lie.
Gurira’s model is clearly Shaw’s Pygmalion. Just as Professor Higgins takes a flower seller and turns her into a fake duchess only to discover she has a soul of her own, so Chilford finally realises that his prize convert is an artificial creation. One of the play’s many ironies is that Chilford seeks to dominate Ester through a language he himself has never idiomatically mastered. Asked about the state of play during the riots, he announces: “It has been a bag of mixtures.” Gurira also gives the action a strong feminist slant by matching Ester’s resurgent independence with the sharp intelligence of a fellow convert, Prudence, who retains the fighting spirit of her Matabele people.
While Gurira unequivocally shows how the Bible and the English language became instruments of colonialism, she also cuts several corners: she underplays the harshness of a tribal culture where women were treated as chattels and, when it comes to male Catholics, suggests there was no alternative to a myopic innocent like Chilford or a blatant opportunist like his best friend, nicknamed Chancey, who is in league with the white mine owners. Even the heroine’s self-discovery is achieved through a violence that seems wildly out of character.
At least the play raises big issues, and Haydon’s production contains a range of strong performances. Mimi Ndiweni excellently captures the transformation of the headstrong Jekesai into the demure, doll-like Ester and does all she can to make you believe in her re-conversion. Joan Iyiola exudes sharp, sprightly wit as the combative Prudence and Clare Perkins as Chilford’s housekeeper skilfully embodies a woman for whom Christianity is simply a camouflage for a belief in ancient spirits. As for Chilford, Stefan Adegbola endows him with a poker-backed dignity that prevents him becoming an easy figure of fun. It’s not a perfect work, but in confronting the interplay of religion and politics in a colonial setting, it’s an ambitious one that ends Haydon’s reign on a positive note.
•At Gate theatre, London, until 11 February. Box office: 020-7229 0706.
