Writers: PB Whistle and Nekisha De Costa
Director: PB Whistle
Many fringe theatre shows tell a pared-down story, with as small a cast as possible and a focused narrative to match. The LOST Lombi feels like a play that has looked at that trend and decided to run in the opposite direction. The result is a complex, multi-generational narrative that stretches from the Democratic Republic of Congo to London and back, with a suitably large cast to match.
Much of the story’s structure revolves around Pearl Dana-May Smith’s Miss CC, an old woman living with dementia in the DRC whose carer, Adea (Latoya Markson), listens to stories of how Miss CC met her one true love. Emily Olum and Seny Mane, as the teenage CC and her attractive soldier boyfriend Shujaa, bring a flirtatious joy to proceedings, even as they are aware that their illicit relationship is fraught with danger.
That threat is compounded by a separate storyline, in which a nine-year-old boy, Bao (Stephanie Tuitt), is taken from his village and family by paramilitary forces and trained to become a child soldier. Tuitt delivers a tremendous performance as Bao, who, initially scared and perpetually calling for his mother, is gradually broken down by his Commander’s relentless drills until he can draw a gun and aim with precision.
Any one of these three strands would quite ably stand on its own. Although it’s not initially clear where Bao’s story fits into CC’s, the consistency and coherence of tone give us confidence that the relationship will emerge in time.
And that makes the London-based strands stick out all the more. Focussing on Esther, a flighty, pregnant woman who quits her office job after being reprimanded one too many times over her lackadaisical attitude, the connection with the DRC-set storylines at first feels elusive. There is a clear attempt to make such scenes tonally distinct, but while that is achieved, it comes at the expense of immersion in Esther’s story.
Things begin to coalesce when Shakira Kirby’s Esther has a confrontational meeting with her mother, Ruby (Louise Woodhead). The cause of the bad blood between mother and daughter is only hinted at, leaving one to speculate whether Esther’s incapacity to settle is the cause or the effect of the family strife.
That scene begins to hint at how all these disparate strands will merge, as it emerges that Esther has chosen to fly to the DRC to locate her maternal bloodline, against her mother’s wishes. How Ruby, who was adopted as a baby and considers her Scottish parents to be her only family, is part of the wider story is kept from us initially, through the audacious decision to cast a white woman in the role. Only when she looks in a mirror is her true Black face revealed, a manifestation of the identity she has lived with versus the heritage Esther wishes to explore.
Gradually, all the tales begin to converge as the relationships between Miss CC, Bao, Ruby, and Esther become clearer. The jumping between times and locations, which continues until the end, is aided by some very smart scene change work. That said, the extensive use of voiceover and musical scoring sometimes struggles to get the sound mix right, occasionally drowning out on-stage dialogue.
With a large cast and only two performance days in a comparatively small theatre, in many ways The LOST Lombi feels even more scrappy and haphazard than other fringe fare. But in its epic scope, sensitive handling of multigenerational trauma, and undoubted heart, it shows us a story that yearns to be told and understood.
Runs until 8 May 2026
