They Drink It in the Congo - Almeida

For anyone my age its just a fantastic title😀

Well, you have me baffled - though judging by your user name, you could be younger than I am.  So would you or anyone else care to explain, please?

Ah! Thank you, The Matthew!

Oh god!!

They will need it in a collar and cuff for a while after it has been reduced

I didn't think so. Also, having learnt of the 3hr+ running time, I'd escaped at the interval in order to catch bus home.

In a strange coincidence, I spotted a branded UmBongo lorry going the other way on the M4 this morning on the way to London...spooky.

Couldn't tell you, I'm afraid - I'd scuttled straight off after the start of the interval.

I might be cheeky and attempt to get a refund by email. Won't be rushing back to see the whole thing. Quite a lot of vocal negative grumblings around me during first half also.

This didn't look like it was going to be as engaging as "Ruined" (Almeida a few years ago) or the Young Vic's "A Season in the Congo". Not a very original premise of ostensibly idealistic young white British woman determined to"give Congo a voice" by organising some sort of cultural festival. What this festival was to be and where it was going to take place may have become clearer in Act 2 (a live band was promised). Her ability to get this off the ground is hampered by a series of stock characters who may as well have been wearing badges saying "White British male PR who thing racism and sexism might make him attractive to main character", "Intense American aid worker". "Bluff male in cycle helmet concerned about conflict minerals", "Ugandan philosophical about people thinking he is Congolese", "Congolese freedom fighter who runs an Internet cafe". "Charismatic Congolese preacher who doesn't want to get involved" - the list goes on! It's set in the round and so quite a lot of the dialogue was spoken away from at least parts of the audience which made for audibility issues. They use a slightly tricksy device of using surtitles in a Congolese language when some of the characters are speaking in London in English to our ears and English surtitles when in the Congo. Hard to explain - you had to be there! All further confused by a tall striking man in scarlet and pink who appeared to be there to announce the sound effects ("A phone rings"....). Re the accident: if it is the main character who was injured, it may have happened when she tripped up onto the stage at the very end of Act 1. She is traumatised by some flash back events and can hardly speak. I now wonder if she was traumatised by having dislocated her shoulder? There was an "Is there a doctor in the house?" announcement in the interval and then once everyone was back in the theatre for the start of Act 2 (the only practical way really) we were told "a member of the cast" had dislocated their shoulder and was on the way to A+E. With regret etc etc. So back to the play, I would have stayed for Act 2 (I am for the most part a stayer) but it would have been a long one (Act 1 was 1h15 and Act 2 was promised as 1h45).

Agreed! Though looking at the trailer - and the rather forlorn drum kit on stage for the start of the second act - I wonder if Act 2 would have had the concert centre stage?

Was it Fiona Button who dislocated her shoulder? She has form for breaking herself judging by her Twitter!

Did they give out refreshing drinks with straws to disgruntled audience menbers??!!😀😀

I saw the first preview on Friday. They let us in 15 minutes late and it started by Michael Longhurst apologizing that this is the first time they do the whole show in order and he might stop it. He didn't, everything seemed normal, but the scene changes were a bit slow and rusty. The text itself disappointed me, I hoped for something more engaging and political, it would definitely benefit from some cuts. I suspect they might still do something to make the show a bit snappier... Judging by this and the massive text changes in previews of Linda I am starting to feel that it might be better to see his productions later in the run (as I did with Linda and loved it).

The second half didn't really feel longer than the first, the band plays quite a bit and there is a random "entertaining" part with people auditioning. The real trouble for me was the Kongolese bit in the first half as I couldn't see the subtitles from my cheap seat (also had some audibility issues at the back of the stalls, with the sound effects and accents).

Overall I would say it was fine but not really memorable...Highlight of my evening was seeing Robert Icke in the foyer, kinda fancied him :-D

What changed in Linda later in the run (if you can remember)?