THEATRE REVIEW: The Dilemma of a Ghost
- Posted on November 11, 2007 4:45 PM
- 0 comments
Written By Ama Ata Aidoo
The Africa Centre - Wednesday 7th November.
Review By Zarina Raja
The Dilemma of a Ghost is playing at the Africa Centre, which is quietly tucked away in Covent Garden. The Africa Centre is barely visible between the glimmering lights and back-to-back West End theatres and restaurants of Covent Garden. Once you enter, however, it is difficult to imagine that you are still in London. Long gone are the bustling crowds and jam-packed, buzzing streets. You seem to have arrived at a local Town Hall or Community Centre. A few rows of seats stretch down the hall with a stage area allocated in the middle of the audience. The play is performed without a levitated stage or high-tech sound and lighting, thus taking theatre back to basics. It is obvious that this play is going to be very different from the usual explosive musicals of Covent Garden.
The Dilemma of a Ghost is essentially about a modern-day culture clash. Ato Yawson, a young Ghanaian, returns home from his studies in America with his new bride, the African-American Eulalie. Poor Ato seems to be unaware of how hard it is going to be to integrate the very American Eulalie into his traditional Ghanaian background. The main issue that seems to cause the most disruption is that Eulalie has decided to use birth control – something that the women of Ghana cannot understand. Child bearing is fundamental to the life and status of a woman. Eulalie’s decision to interfere with the natural route of birth forces Ato to lie to his family about why they do not have any children. Eulalie is devastated that Ato tells this lie. As a fully Westernized women, she cannot understand Ato’s loyalty to his tribe of people. This in turn leads to Eulalie’s heavy drinking and in the end, the destruction of their relationship.
The Dilemma of a Ghost is a mesmerizing insight into some traditional African culture. It is acted beautifully and simply. It is covered in drum-based Ghanaian music and singing, classic Ghanaian dress and at times, language. A variety of emotions is spread out through the play, entwining humour, love, sadness and anger. At times, it is hard to follow the exact meaning of certain references but the general gist is obvious. There are, however, undoubtedly layers of themes and symbols at the heart of the play that I know I didn’t quite pick up on that would enrich its meaning.
In commemorating two hundred years since the Act Abolishing the Slave Trade, the legacy of slavery is laced throughout The Dilemma of a Ghost – the ghosts being a manifestation of slavery. Ato’s harrowing dream - that seems to come out of no where - of two children that sing the ghost of a slave song, turns into a violent and terrifying scene in which a doubled-over Eulalie takes on the character of a slave who is repeatedly whipped. This part of the play is a powerful reminder of what the slaves endured from their masters; the atmosphere in the room thickened with horror and sadness. The whoosh of the whip that sliced through the air with menace was unsettling and uncomfortable, it went on for longer than I would have liked but brought me and the rest of the audience face-to-face with a past that we can only ever imagine.
The Dilemma of a Ghost wonderfully incorporates culture and entertainment. It tears you away from your Western life-style and immerses you in the African way of living. The only part of the play that made me want to run back into the London night was at the end when the actors began plucking people from the comfort of their chairs and pulling them up to the stage area where everyone was dancing and singing. I wasn’t interested in Public Humiliation that night, so we snuck out the door as fast as possible.
For more info on The Dilemma of a Ghost go to www.bordercorssings.org.uk
You can also check out www.passageofmusic.org.uk
Have you seen The Dilemma of a Ghost? Please leave your comments below.
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