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Reader rating
Dir: Helena Bell.
Cast: Oval House Theatre
Description: Double bill of plays written by Oladipo Agboluaje and Rukhsana Ahmad, a mix of African slapstick humour and love and loss in a strange country. Directed by Helena Bell.
Trains: Tube: Oval 
Phone: 0207582 7680
Website: www.ovalhouse.com
Clowning around: Valentine Hanson and Tosin Olomowewe in For One Night Only
This double-bill of plays, celebrating Pursued By A Bear theatre company’s tenth anniversary, swings from angst to slapstick in its study of the immigrant experience.
Rukhsana Ahmad’s Letting Go is the poignant tale of Abbas, a refugee from Liberia, who waits in vain on the beach at Dover for his ‘lost’ brother to find him. Trapped in the trauma of his past, he struggles to respond to the overtures of his English teacher Prem, who is tussling with her own demons.
The piece groans slightly under the weight of its concerns and director Helena Bell doesn’t manage to stop this production seeming more worthy than engaging.
In contrast, Oladipo Agboluaje’s warm-hearted knockabout For One Night Only follows Eddie and Bode, newly arrived on fake passports, and their attempt to get to Covent Garden and find fame as African drummers. Owing to Bode’s blustering over-confidence when faced with the British transport service, however, they keep ending up in the outer reaches of the Home Counties – picking apples in Didcot, attacking concrete cows in Milton Keynes – struggling to keep their dream alive.
There’s an inventive set, plenty of clowning and some smart one-liners (as you’d expect from the writer of The Christ Of Coldharbour Lane) but not quite enough material for an hour. Nevertheless, Valentine Hanson and Tosin Olomowewe are terrific fun to watch.
Siobhan Murphy Until May 3, 020 7582 7680, www.ovalhouse.com
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
