Writer: Edi de Melo
Director: Chris Yarnell
The set for Mulatto Boy isn’t complicated. It’s a big red circle in a playing space surrounded by seats, with some fairly random bits of furniture scattered around. But that’s where the simplicity ends. Edi de Melo, the writer and principal actor, prowls around inside the circle. His companion, the Griot, played by Tunji Lucas, stays mostly outside, and from such simple ingredients, de Melo and company conjure magic.
The story concerns a young woman who fled Angola during the post-colonial wars there, settled in England with some fairly questionable paperwork and then gave birth to a boy. A boy born and brought up in London, with an absent white father and a love of Arsenal F. C. and the England football squad, a Londoner from his haircut to his trainers, a Londoner who falls in love with a London girl who dreams of a wedding in Malta, at which point the boy finds his citizenship is in question, his right to remain threatened, the threat of his imminent despatch to an Africa and an Angola he doesn’t know, and his consequent battles with bureaucracy.
The story is told through beautifully choreographed movement from de Melo and Lucas, including a lovely break-dancing sequence. It is told in rapid-fire dialogue that employs clusters of rhymes, but in such a natural speaking voice, they seem like regular speech. It is told through drum rhythms made by Lucas and an exquisite sound design by Cesar Sousa, amplifying breath sounds and footsteps, overlaying natural sounds of birds and insects and traffic. It is highlighted by Harriet White’s amazing lighting design that doesn’t attempt to be naturalistic, but that defines areas, enhances mood, and modulates to provide rhythm and diversity.
The two men on stage speak with each other and with the audience, but de Melo is also in constant dialogue with an array of unseen speakers. If the speakers are present in the theatre, they do some fine voice acting. If their dialogue is pre-recorded, then the seamless, dynamic engagement of actor and recording is another impressive achievement for the sound techs. Patricia Godinho voices several characters with aplomb.
This highly impressive production is expertly marshalled by the director Chris Darnell, it is pacy, funny, beautiful, and timely. It presents a relatively simple story in an impressively stark setting and sets the evening on fire with theatre magic and excellent technique. It is wonderful.
Runs until 3 November 2024
