Cast feel the heat

Maxie Szalwinska|Metro10 April 2012

A stranger, Odewale, arrives in Kutuje, a village ensnared in tribal warfare.
He defeats a neighbouring enemy to become king and, when his people fall sick, he vows to find the murderer of Kutuje's former ruler to rid the land of disease.

Nigerian playwright Ola Rotimi wrote this reworking of Sophocles's Oedipus Rex, which transposes the tragedy to a Yoruban setting, during the Nigerian civil war - a cautionary tale about ethnic strife and a call for people to take responsibility for their own fate.

Femi Elufowoju Jr's production gets off to a wobbly start (a tinny voice-over doesn't help). But if it takes a while to hit its stride, the overlong staging builds in power.

In Ultz's simple but arresting in-the-round design, the action is played out on woven matting, watched over by ghostly faces stencilled on the theatre's walls. This is an authentically heat-struck evening, with the cast pouring sweat under Trevor Wallace's punishing lights.

Golda John's Queen Ojuola has a boulder-like calm: nothing short of an earthquake could faze this woman. She goes to her death as if she's about to take a short nap. Thankfully, there's stronger acting elsewhere. Mo Sesay's Odewale moves from complacency to dangerous paranoia to self-knowledge. By the end, he's a commanding figure with bloody, oozing eye sockets.

Until Jul 2, Arcola Theatre, 27 Arcola Street E8, Mon to Sat 8pm, Jul 2 mat 2.30pm, £10, £6 concs, Tue pay what you can. Tel: 020 7503 1646. www.arcolatheatre.com Rail: Dalston Kingsland

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