In what is a world premiere by Bush Theatre Emerging Writers Group Alumnus Beru Tessema, comes a drama developed by Tamasha theatre and directed by Daniel Bailey, associate artistic director at the Bush Theatre…
By Suman Bhuchar
THIS new play is the story of a young, ambitious man called Manny – short from Emmanuel to which he doesn’t like to respond.
Manny (played by Kieran Taylor-Ford) hails from Bow, East London and wants to make some money quick by hustling and dealing firstly in designer label rip offs, then when his best friend Abdul (Hassan Najib) introduces him to the delights of trading in crypto currency his life changes.
There is a great deal of banter and street slang as the two young men learn how to look at financial charts and keep an eye on their assets. All enjoyable, witty and light.
Another key strand of the story is Manny’s mum Feven’s (Alma Eno) relationship with Markus, (Ery Nzaramba) an Ethiopian origin bus driver who also does Uber and is wrestling with the need to get his son to safety, while the she has an ambition to open an Ethiopian restaurant. The play has a lot of strands.
Meanwhile, Manny has borrowed money to buy his rip off designer swag and can’t pay it back. It looks like danger lurks because the lender is a hard man – but that storyline never goes anywhere.
The set by Amelia Jane Hankin and video design by Gino Ricardo Green is sort of integrated on the main Holloway stage at the Bush Theatre. It becomes the interior of the family home and then Manny’s own flat with the top section becoming a financial billboard or a screen monitor where information is added texts, graphs and such like.
Manny has no time for his mother’s boyfriend, he’s too busy looking at screens and there is an artificially manufactured argument between them in the first act, which doesn’t ring true.
Obviously, Manny is seduced by crypto and for a while it looks like his dreams are coming true fast.
Manny and Abdul meet the entrepreneur Devlin, whom they admire and this role is played by guest actors appearing for two weeks at a stretch. www.asianculturevulture.com saw it with Jamael Westman as Devlin – he is the head honcho of DGX, the crypto empire that Manny & Abdul have been seduced by.
Devlin puts in an appearance in the second act when the set changes and he is like a rock star,on stage and delivering a huge monologue on how crypto is better than conventional methods of transferring money abroad and encourages the two young men to recruit their local community into investing and even the level headed Markus is persuaded.
Suffice to say, things come to a head and this is ultimately a moral play about whether greed is good or as the Bible quote which is used in the play puts it: “For the love of money is the root of all evil”.
There is a secondary sub-plot with Markus trying to get his son into the UK illegally but that is peripheral to the main arc of the story and it is clear that Manny doesn’t actually understand these difficulties.
The playwright, Tessema is not really interested in the ups and downs of the trade market, his focus is on the friendship between the two young men and the values of the older generation. All the cast are very good and we warm to their individual personalities.
It’s well written and enjoyable with a warm heart and much humour.
Acv rating:*** (out of five)
All pictures: ©HelenMurray
Listing
Wolves on Road by Beru Tessama, runs until December 21 at the Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road, W12 8LJ
More info/tickets: https://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/
