Inkel & Yariko, by Jonathan Lichtenstein, Pulse Fringe Festival, Ipswich, May 28

This story of black exploitation by white and female by male spans two centuries.

In the 1790s a white aristocrat not only forgoes his love of a black African woman for wealth and position he sells her into slavery.

Two hundred years later - eight generations down the line of the same white family – a black servant girl is raped.

As in Ibsen’s play, Ghosts, the sins of the father are visited upon the sons and the past returns to haunt the present.

This rehearsed reading – at the climax of a week in which the script had been work-shopped – was slickly presented, the actors working hard to create an emotional and tense atmosphere, enhanced by the singing of a four-strong, choir.

Whether having the singers on stage added anything to the drama is debatable – it was perhaps worth a try.

In the drama itself there were few new ideas to black/white conflict and some of the characters – in the script or in this interpretation – verged on the caricature, particularly the aristocrat in the early scene and the manservant and friend in both time warps, a character who might have been more at home in a sit-com.

The balance in this full-length play also seemed skewed, little sympathy being attracted by the main white characters – largely self-orientated snobs, bigots and bores.

However, director, Peter Rowe, teased out some terrific performances, particularly from Georgina White as Narcissa, Gracy Goldman as Yariko and Samantha Pearl as Wski.

David Green