The High Table review: Beguiling energy to a passionate debut about breaking down barriers

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Nick Curtis @nickcurtis17 February 2020

Grumpy spirits convene to influence the fate of an Anglo-Nigerian bisexual woman and her female fiancée in Temi Wilkey’s passionate, funny, rough-edged debut. It’s a well-plotted work with a pleasing symmetry – tolerance battles repression in heaven as it does on earth – though the dialogue can be trite.

Daniel Bailey’s production features several likeable performances, with four of the five actors switching from earthly roles to those of the spirits passing judgment on them, but could do with tighter focus. It’s far from perfect, but its energy is beguiling and its message of compassion uplifting.

Tara (sassy Cherrelle Skeete) only introduces her fiancée Leah (exasperated Ibinabo Jack) to her conservative parents weeks before their wedding. The rift this causes only widens when her father’s brother asks for help, having been caught in a police raid on a gay club night in Lagos.

There’s an amusing, jobsworth tone to the dead elders’ attitude to ancestor duty, though Wilkey seems most at home writing flirty or frustrated exchanges for the young lovers. The least convincing characters are Tara’s parents, who preach the imposed morality of Christian colonisers in the name of African "tradition". They’re good comic value, though, Tara’s mother desperately suggesting that a man around the house is essential for shelf-erecting purposes.

It’s played out on an earth-strewn floor with drummer Mohamed Gueye flagging the scene changes from a low ridge behind. Wilkey’s flair for structure leads to a neat resolution and – on opening night at least – the audience joining the cast on stage to perform the Electric Slide. A nice symbolic ending for a play that’s all about breaking down barriers.

Until 21 Mar (020 8743 5050, bushtheatre.co.uk)

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