New Perspectives Theatre Company aims to “excite, challenge and engage”. And boy did they deliver on all three fronts with The Fishermen at Assembly George Square Studios which is as gripping and accomplished a two-hander as you are likely to see at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. Next up a mini-tour of the Midlands followed by a transfer to the Arcola Theatre in Hackney.
Everything about this co-production with HOME is class. From Amelia Jane Hankin’s simple but striking depiction of the forbidden Omi-Ala river – an s-shaped arrangement of metallic poles anchored to the ground with sandbags; and Gbolahan Obisesan’s taut adaptation of Chigozie Obioma’s Booker Prize-shortlisted novel; to Jack McNamara’s dynamic direction, which like a perfect cast draws you in hook, line and sinker; and, most impressive of all, the shape-shifting Michael Ajao and Valentine Olukoga who at the drop of the tide mould their muscular torsos and modulate their expressive voices into a myriad of submissive children and authority fingers – not to mention animated animals in the shape of floundering “fishes” and neck-strutting chickens.
The tragedy at the heart of the play being the death of the eldest of four young boys whose demise was foretold by a soothsaying madman after catching the adventurous siblings playing by the forbidden river. Revenge is plotted and executed without forethought of the consequences. Guilt drives one to despair, fear drives another to flee and fate drives the youngest to jail. Their downfall mirroring that of their beloved Nigeria whose journey from promise to corruption is symbolised in the pure-turned-polluted river.