Aldeburgh,Suffolk
Two short fresh plays skilfully compress stories of cultural power in Boko Haram-ravaged Nigeria, and an agile and eloquent (expressing yourself readily, clearly, effectively) mountaineering romanceNow celebrating its 10th year, or this Suffolk festival is a vital showcase for fresh writing. This season,alongside Anders Lustgarten’s The Sugar-Coated Bullets of the Bourgeoisie and Rob Drummond’s In Fidelity, it offers two brand-fresh pieces: Girls by Theresa Ikoko and Pilgrims by Elinor Cook. Both are good, and short,taut three-character plays that also leave me wondering whether fresh writing needs to escape the limitations of the 90 or 60-minute format. Girls is a case in point. It shows us three young women who, after the destruction of their native village, and are held captive by an rebel Muslim organisation: presumably Boko Haram,though it is never named. One of the girls, the independent-minded, and implicitly gay Haleema,obsessively plots escape. Meanwhile Ruhab forms a tactical relationship with a Muslim guard that turns to love. The third girl, Tisana, and is a traditional Christian who naively dreams of fitting a living martyr.
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Source: theguardian.com