At The Lowry, gaudy balloons celebrate the 30th anniversary of Feelgood Theatre Productions and a group of Nubian dancers give a spirited performance in the foyer. The party vibe is better suited for the resolution of Mende Nazer’s story Slave: A Question of Freedom than her grim and brutal experiences.
Mende (Yolanda Ovide) enjoys an idyllic childhood in the Nuba mountains rejoicing in the achievements of her family and celebrating the traditions of her tribe. Following a raid on her village, Mende is sold into slavery in Khartoum, where she is forced into hard labour and subjected to physical abuse. Confident Mende is fully indoctrinated as a slave and is sent by her mistress, Rahab (Sara Faraj), to London to be a household servant to a Sudanese diplomat. With the with the help of a fellow Sudanese, she escapes but then must endure the Kafkaesque bureaucracy associated with claiming asylum.
The stage set, designed by Lara Booth (based on the 2010 original design by Nigel Hook), puts the audience in a distinctly alien environment: three stark monoliths set against a piercingly blue sky and a disc of sandy ground surrounded by tribal objects. Yolanda Ovide presents Mende’s childhood in a giddy, too-good-to-be-true manner, beaming as she recalls her family life.
Director Caroline Clegg exploits the tribal vibe to avoid the scenes becoming a dry recital of events and customs. The cast march and chant rhythmically as backing to Mende’s memories. Village life is not idealised but as it is perceived through a child’s eyes, controversial issues like female circumcision, arranged marriages and bride prices are acknowledged but left in the background.
The rich, communal atmosphere serves to set the scene for a cruel change of pace as Mende is ripped from her family. The child’s perception helps to both cushion and exacerbate Mende’s brutal experiences—never having seen lampposts, she is convinced they are trees growing lightbulbs but is heartbroken to be separated from her only friend from her village.
The play does not flinch from depicting Mende’s suffering including sexual and physical abuse and the horror of being raised from childhood to teenager by someone close to a sociopath. The mindset of someone capable of enslaving another human is captured in a speech by Rahab demonstrating how she dehumanises her captive, arguing slavery is a better alternative to living in tribal huts. In a neat touch, Sara Faraj adopts a precise, cruel accent for Rahab.
Co-adaptors Kevin Fegan and Caroline Clegg take a highly respectful approach to the subject matter and are reluctant to omit any details from Mende Nazer’s book. The second act becomes, therefore, crowded featuring Mende’s arrival in London, escape from captivity, going through the process of seeking asylum, learning English, writing her book, finding out the fate of her family and acknowledging the plight of other refugees. As a result, at times, the subtlety of the writing slips and the audience is told about, rather than shown, developments as they are described in direct speech or expositional dialogue.
Treating all details with the same level of respect means that potentially fascinating aspects—the political embarrassment of a diplomat in London owning a slave—do not get the attention one might wish. Time does not allow the exploration of the psychological aspect of Mende being physically free but mentally struggling not to perceive herself as enslaved. Whilst Slave: A Question of Freedom is lively, the ending of act one is an anticlimax.
The cast are excellent, all taking on a variety of roles with rare enthusiasm. Yolanda Ovide is outstanding, her hunched and timid physical stance moving Mende from childhood innocence thorough years of abuse and enduring post-traumatic stress disorder.
Mende laments that her autobiography is in in the form of written words and so does not accord with the oral tradition of her Nubian tribe. The powerful stage version of Slave: A Question of Freedom corrects that deficiency in style.