Comparative newcomer Bola Agbaje joins the big boys in the final offering in the Tricycle’s rewarding Not Black & White season which examines 21st century social issues from the perspective of a trio of black playwrights.
Her succinctly titled Detaining Justice focuses on the Catch 22 situation faced by illegal immigrants who arrive here without papers but with a gritty determination to stay. Whether they’ve come in search of a better life or in flight from death threats back home, they face an uphill struggle to either evade the authorities completely or convince them that they have a legitimate case to remain.
Agbaje links an often comic trio of squabbling illegal cleaners (who obtained their menial jobs using false identities) with the case of Aml Ameen’s Justice (a young Zimbabwean asylum seeker facing imminent deportation) to expose the hardship and exploitation, the discrimination and uncertainty they suffer at the hands of both black and white.
In an excellent cast, newcomer Rebecca Scroggs makes a strong impact as chatty, sometimes naïve but sympathetic law student Chi Chi, Cecilia Noble is a god-fearing churchgoer to be reckoned with – even by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith’s evangelical pastor – and Sharon Duncan Brewster movingly tries everything possible to secure her brother’s release from the detention centre when faced with the intractably sadistic attitude of Jimmy Akingbola’s Home Office case worker.
Indhu Rubasingham’s swiftly paced production brings out the best in Agbaje’s snappy dialogue, and although her plotting could occasionally be a little tighter, she raises important questions which need to be addressed.
Tricycle, Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR Kilburn Tube (
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