Review: My Father's Fable (Bush Theatre)

Review by Sam Waite

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“You only hold on to something that tight when you should have never had it in the first place.”

Family can be one of the most difficult things to navigate – where one member may carry years of resentment, another may lean sharply into their obligation to love and support. My Father’s Fable, actor and playwright Faith Omole’s stirring new drama, begins as an exploration of two siblings’ wildly differing relationships with their late father, and gradually devolves into a heartfelt look at how upbringing can shape us, and how damaging the ties that bind can become.

With the Bush Theatre mainstage transformed into the kitchen and living spaces of a London home, we find Peace fretting over the arrival of a half-sibling from overseas. Bolu grew up in Nigeria, having not seen their father since he was a small child, while Peace was raised by him in England, and the lack of connection to her parents’ homeland is showing as she prepares for his arrival. Peace’s overbearing mother, Favour, makes an appearance just in time to salvage her daughter’s disastrous attempt at Nigerian food, and – much to the chagrin of Peace’s partner, Roy – soon finds herself afflicted with a migraine that means she just has to spend the night.

Omole’s writing is authentic and natural, conversations veering from friendly chatter to more serious subjects without becoming too pointed or leaning too far into exposition for the audience’s sake. That being the case, it’s hard not to notice that the first scenes more just a bit too slowly – Omole’s storytelling is so adept at providing information during dialogue, that the initial set-up feels unnecessary, something we could have easily come to understand the scenario without. Indeed, once Bolu has arrived and Favour’s unwelcome stay has been established, this flow so much more smoothly that the play could easily start during that first night. Still, the quality of the writing helps to balance what may simply be too much of it – the two acts as they stand are marvellous, but I wonder if there may be a masterpiece one-act buried within.

At the heart of the play is Peace, played with winning naivete and frustrating girlishness by Tiwa Lade. Lade completely embodies this kind-hearted and intelligent woman, including her inability to say no to her mother, and how quickly she reverts to being an overeager, desperate to please child when Favour makes even a small suggestion of change. Rakie Ayola, as the overbearing Favour, offers up a masterclass in undermining and manipulation – every line is a new chance for Favour to get her way, and Ayola gives such pitch-perfect readings that the press night audience were groaning with every not-so-subtle guidance of her daughter’s choices, having come to realise just how false her well-honed sincerity was.

Bolu, the long-lost brother newly arriving from Nigeria, is played with a sense of both confidence and deep sorrow by Theo Ogundipe. While his happiness at uniting with the sister he never knew, and his sense of duty in teaching her phrases in Yoruba, comes across as entirely genuine and delightfully amiable, Ogundipe carries just enough darkness behind this that it’s clear there is more to the backstory than Peace has been made aware of. Ogundipe and Ayola’s scenes together, in which it is further suggested that there is so much Peace doesn’t know, demonstrate the dramatic prowess of both performers, and the pair’s onstage chemistry greatly enhances the air of mystery in what these secrets may be.

Crucially, Rebekah Murrell’s direction keeps the performances natural, lived-in, and easy to believe. When Omole’s script eventually veers into intense, world-shattering plot twists, that sense of humanity still permeates, ensuring that these sharp turns don’t launch the audience out of their immersion. As TK Hay’s well-arranged, believably modern living spaces become a battleground – metaphorically and very nearly literally – Murrell moves the cast about the home carefully, bringing them right into each other's spaces only in moments of real intensity, allowing the actors space to breathe and the characters a sense of clarity as they each find their most comfortable position when getting to know the new arrival.

The show’s greatest asset, surprisingly, may in fact be long-suffering partner Roy, played with deep-rooted frustrations and a clearly long-standing acceptance of a challenging norm by Gabriel Akuwudike. When Favour responds to a clarification that Roy is not, in fact, Jamaican by dismissively calling him “Marley”, it’s a moment of palpable tension, but Akuwudike plays it as one typical of their dynamics. When he eventually snaps, the agony of forever delaying an offered promotion, of kindly welcoming a woman who treats him terribly into his home, of trying and failing to give Peace the opportunity to grow as an adult, is all deeply felt and is buried just below the surface throughout the performance. Akuwudike’s Roy seems so amiable, so go-with-the-flow, but the sheer strength of his acting keeps this likeable composure while letting us see right from the start just how much strain everyone else’s problems have increasingly placed on his shoulders.

Perhaps a bit too long, and for some certainly a tad too dramatic – I definitely heard “Nollywood” thrown around during the outgoing, alluding to soap opera-esque drama and high-stakes twists towards the end – My Father’s Fable is still a roaring success due largely to the depth of its characters, and the work of its stellar cast. Omole’s balancing act of naturalism and intense drama keeps the audience on edge while still maintaining believable, deeply-rooted connections between the characters, and giving their home and their lives a lived-in, familiar quality. While I’d be interested to see a more condensed, to-the-point version of the story, the play as it stands is startling, affecting, and incredibly powerful – more than worth the pay-off after the awkwardly-paced opening scenes.

My Father’s Fable plays at the Bush Theatre until July 27th

For tickets and information visit https://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/event/my-fathers-fable/

Photos by Manuel Haran