A serious Conundrum

Photo of Anthony Ofoegbu Copyright: Marc Brenner

Daniel Nelson

Fittingly for its title, Conundrum is a play that’s simultaneously too much and too little.

Too much because it’s overwrought and theatrically repetitive: too little because it doesn’t give enough information to fully involve the audience.

Anthony Ofoegbu’s coiled energy rivals that of a small power station as he portrays Fidel, a man at the end of his tether, imploding in a nervous breakdown. The cause of his mental collapse is racism, and there’s a potentially powerful moment when the audience is made complicit. But the 70-minute monologue doesn’t ram the point home, and shifts the focus to the culpability of his mother and even himself (“I did end up blaming myself”).

This is serious material, recognisable to many families of colour in this country. The mental impact of racism on black families (“What agony to watch their children be crushed”) is underrated by white people. It starts young and gathers momentum at school. “My careers officer said I had too many lofty ideas,” recalls Fidel. Self-blinkered white folk who decline to face up to their deep involvement need reminding that “black pupils with lofty ideas” is just a contemporary version of the “uppity ni**er” of yesteryear.

No wonder Fidel has to keep telling himself, “I know who I am.”

So as someone who constantly calls for theatre to tackle serious themes I welcome the subject of this play 100 per cent, and I recognise the need to dramatise it as powerfully as possible.

The trouble is we know so little about Fidel’s back-story and character. Perhaps writer Paul Anthony Morris meant it that way, to make the problem less personal and more widespread. But it makes the piece oblique and a little opaque, as does some of Fidel’s beautifully executed contorting mime.

This is brave theatre, but a hard watch.

* Conundrum, £18-£10, is at the Young Vic, 66 The Cut, SE1, until 4 February. Info: 7922 2922/ boxoffice@youngvic.org