The Authenticator

by Winsome Pinnock

seen at the National Theatre (Dorfman) on 25 April 2026

Miranda Cromwell directs Rakie Ayola as Abi, Cherrelle Skeete as Marva and Sylvestra Le Touzel as Fen in a short play in which Abi and her research assistant Marva are invited by Fen, the inheritor of a family estate, to authenticate some diaries she has discovered in a chest, which may relate to her abolitionist ancestor, a Jamaican plantation owner.

The estate is run down - gloriously indicated by Jon Bausor's inventive set, which even contrives a spooky dungeon revealed by the cunning use of a concealed stairway in the floor - and the academics, being Black, have vested interests in the project which may compromise their professional protocols, especially when it seems that the writer of the diaries may have treated slaves badly, and that the family has continued with racist attitudes down to the present day. Yet despite these weighty themes there is much humour in the piece as Pinnock sets about skewering both landed pretensions (Fen's background is belied by her plummy accent) and the clichés of haunted house mysteries with a deft touch occasionally marred by coincidences which are a little too convenient.

The Half God of Rainfall

by Inua Ellams

seen at the Kiln Theatre on 4 May 2019

Nancy Medina directs Rakie Ayola as Modupe and Kwami Odoom as Demi in a play which mixes elements of Yoruba and Greek mythology in a contemporary setting - Demi is the child of Zeus and a human mother Modupe, and is a star basketball player, even though there is (apparently) a convention that demigods should not take part in sports events.

Very soon, it becomes apparent that basketball is not really the point, although Kwami Okoom's adolescent athleticism brings an infectious energy to the stage. Once the boy has progressed from local success to being part of the Nigerian Olympic team in 2012, and hence a challenge to the Olympian Zeus which is impossible for the jealous god to ignore, the play turns to examine the abusiveness and misogyny lurking beneath the many stories of Zeus's amours with human women. Modupe in her grief raises an impassioned revolt against the predator god in a climax of astonishing rage and power.