The ATC company, in association with the Young Vic, have created an exciting and passionate piece. It draws you right into the relationship between Ogun, a hard working mechanic and his younger brother Oshoosi, who has recently got out of prison.
From the off you are in Oshoosi's darkened bedroom, where he lies having nightmares. Ogun bangs about, letting in the not-so-early morning sun of Louisiana, abusing his brother's laziness and eventually dragging him off to work in his car repair shop.
It's all there in front of you. A tatty truck outside a tired, clapperboard house, with Oshoosi's bedroom fusty and bedraggled from his night terrors.
Yet there's not a stick of scenery on stage or a single prop. Every setting, as the play jumps about cinematically from the brothers' home to the bayou, from Oshoosi's cell to the high street to Ogun's truck, comes from the performances of Daniel Francis as Ogun and Tunji Kasim as Oshoosi.
All there is in this play in the round is a large chalk circle drawn on the floor in the opening scene and a scattering of red dust on the floor.
If this opening sequence of the two brothers' bitter argument sets off as a simple piece about the status of modern Afro-Americans, writer Tarell Alvin McCraney quickly signals his intent to be different, with the performers speaking all their stage directions: entrances, exits and even the expressions on their faces.
It makes a very direct, storytelling style and the play quickly moves off somewhere very different. When Ogun tells the Oshoosi how his one-time girlfriend has gone off with his best pal – and cut off her own ear to demonstrate her love for him, you know this will get very dark.
The third force in the trio is Anthony Welsh who plays Elegba, a man who spent time inside with Oshoosi and who now regards him as his own brother.
With his presence, the real story here is the one about being brothers. How Ogun has spent his life looking out for Oshoosi and trying to keep him on the straight and narrow, while every time he can mess it up, Oshoosi does. And how Elegba spent his time in jail looking out for Oshoosi too, earning the right to call him brother.
As the play turns and draws in all sorts of influences, from the Bible to the myths of the Nigerian Yaruba (whose gods give the characters their names), it hints at broader themes too – about the nature of slavery and absolute love.
Yet as it builds to the finale, with Francis and Kasim singing along to Otis Redding's Try A Little Tenderness, behind all the layers, there is something very simple and powerful being said about being brothers.
Run ends SaturdayThe full article contains 511 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
