Yours Abundantly, From Zimbabwe

Published Monday 6 October 2008 at 13:10 by Paul Vale

Nell Porter is having a mid-life crisis. On the sale of the family business, her children begin to circle like vultures for their share of the family fortune but Nell’s focus is on Zimbabwe. She has been corresponding with the child Enock and her relationship with him, his teacher Boniface and others in the village has grown to the extent that she wishes to join them as a teacher. This new play by Gillian Plowman is a fairly pedestrian affair but touches on several themes that affect the heart and toy with emotions enough raise it above the ordinary.

Iona McLeish’s sweeping design, a rich wooden floor with a central acting space, enables the Oval House to appear enormous and Annie Castledine and Ben Evan’s direction manages to utilise this to great effect. The central performance by Gillian Wright as Nell is deeply moving. Wright dominates the stage both emotionally and physically, despite her tiny frame, and she is more than a match for her vindictive daughter, played with caustic precision by Hannah Boyde. Tonderai Munyevu plays the young Enock beautifully, arming the character with just the right mix of innocence and bravado. Nicholas Beveney imparts a boyish charm to the gentle teacher Boniface, but the real strength comes from his wife Violet, played with strength and dignity by Aicha Kossoko.

While Plowman’s play understandably offers no solutions, it refuses to preach and rests its laurels on the fact that individuals can and will make a difference in Zimbabwe.