Fixer, by Lydia Adetunji , High Tide Festival, The Cut, Halesworth, May 3.The fixer is a local bar owner in Lagos who can, for a price, introduce foreign journalists to “the boys” - a group of armed thugs who have set light to a global consortium's trans Saharan oil pipeline.
David Green
Fixer, by Lydia Adetunji , High Tide Festival, The Cut, Halesworth, May 3.
The fixer is a local bar owner in Lagos who can, for a price, introduce foreign journalists to “the boys” - a group of armed thugs who have set light to a global consortium's trans Saharan oil pipeline.
And there is no shortage of takers for his services - including Dave (Roger Evans), a cynical white veteran of the media circus, and Laurence (Chike Okonkwo), a truth-loving black freelance trying to make a name for himself.
But in a society racked with subterfuge, violence and corruption, every move presents a risk - to the fixer as well as the journalists.
Adetunji's well-structured play examines the motives of all the players in a situation which, one suspects, occurs every day throughout the Third World as Western business interests exploit resources and cheap labour. Suffice it to say that no-one comes out of the story smelling of roses.
The characters are well drawn. Todd Boyce plays Jerome, a “poacher turned gamekeeper” (journalist turned corporate front man) while Rae Hendrie plays his superior, Sara, a consultant who has her finger, and the consortium's purse strings, firmly on the pulse of big money politics.
Israel Oyelumade is the fixer, a man who knows the risks he is taking but whose common sense is overcome by the lure of money.
Director, Nathan Curry, produced a fast-moving piece of in-the-round drama, well staged in the top floor of The Cut arts centre, a challenging space for theatre but imaginatively used. Lighting by Matt Prentice and sound by Steve Mayo were impressive.
Fixer deals with similar issues as Stovepipe, a play presented in promenade style at last year's High Tide Festival, a drama which went on to achieve great success in London under the auspices of the National Theatre.
On this showing, Fixer may not be as stunning a piece of theatre as Stovepipe but it has all the ingredients needed to hold an audience; good story, good characters, salutary lesson on human nature.
David Green
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