★★☆☆☆
This was a strange way to reopen the Young Vic. There’s no reason why an ancient Egyptian text shouldn’t speak to a modern audience, but this hour-long production by the artistic director Kwame Kwei-Armah fails to communicate much in the way of history, spirituality or sense of place.
Even the title that Ben Okri has applied to his translation — Changing Destiny — seems oddly bland, more like a report from the Department for Work and Pensions than a tale which, its admirers argue, is a precursor of The Odyssey. (In his programme note, Okri argues that the poem prefigures Kafka too.)
The story of Sinuhe, which dates back some 4,000 years, tells of a noble figure who is, at first, part of the royal inner circle but who spends much of his life in servitude in exile before redeeming himself as a warrior. A stranger in a foreign land, he longs to return home.
We are given the bare bones of the story by two young actors, Joan Iyiola and Ashley Zhangazha, who begin proceedings by playing a rock-paper-scissors game to decide which of them will play Sinuhe himself (Iyiola was the winner on press night). It’s a curiously tentative opening to a piece that demands weightier performances than it receives, and that is, above all, fatally handicapped by Okri’s leaden script. If you’ve never been a fan of the declamatory verse that he has produced in the decades since his novel The Famished Road won the Booker Prize, you won’t be surprised to hear that the words fail to soar here.
Advertisement
The set and costumes designed by the architect David Adjaye are underwhelming too. A small inverted pyramid resting on another provides the focal point. Video images are projected onto the upper form, while the lower one opens up into a flat, star-like space. It looks bargain-basement, as do the actors’ tunics.
Part of the aim of the production seems to be to reintegrate ancient Egypt into the story of the African continent. Tunde Jegede’s kora music continually nudges us towards modern-day Nigeria. And the text hints at parallels between Sinuhe’s wanderings and the plight of 21st-century refugees and immigrants.
Apart from Jackie Shemesh’s subtle lighting and Duncan McLean’s flickering video images, though, the lingering impression is of an underpowered classroom exercise.
To Aug 21, youngvic.org
Follow @timesarts on Twitter to read the latest reviews