Review: TAMBO AND BONES, Theatre Royal Stratford East - Tour

Photo credit: Jane Hobson

Tambo and Bones are archetypal characters from minstrelsy when we first meet them, trapped in their painted scenery background. Their plight and the tree that forms part of the action both carry echoes of Vladimir and Estragon. Condemned to perform for money, and then reduced to self-harm to provoke a response, Clifford Samuel (exquisite timing) and Daniel Ward (combining exuberance and vulnerability) immediately grab our attention in this first and strongest act of Dave Harris’ 2022 play. The direct approach to the audience by the two characters creates genuine contact which will rebound later in the play, and the fourth-wall demolition continues with some clever use of a puppet of the playwright.

In the second act, we are in the present day at an arena concert with Tambo and Bones, now featuring as two hip-hop performers. Their relationship is the same however, deftly sketched in by the two skilled actors under the confident direction of Matthew Xia (aka DJ Excalibah). The outside world intrudes, however, and there is news of a civil war developing.

To say too much about the third act, after an interval, would be unfair to those who have not yet seen the piece, but it does lead us to rethink everything we saw before the interval. It is set 400 years in the future, and Tambo and Bones are now speakers at an event, and accompanied by two robots (Jaron Lammens and Dru Cripps). Surprisingly, robots in the future don’t seem to have advanced on those of the present day and still move like break dancers – remarkable performances by both actors however, and a credit to Movement Director Kloé Dean. Set and costume design (Sadeysa Greenaway-Bailey and ULTZ) creates entirely different worlds for each act.

This Actors Touring Company production is visiting six venues and the impact of the piece is likely to vary depending on the make-up of the audience. At Stratford East, a diverse audience of experienced theatregoers were mildly responsive but did not perhaps show signs of being as shocked as the playwright may have intended by the events portrayed and the frequent use of the ‘n’ word.

Despite some aspects seeming similar, this is very much an American play and was perhaps originally played to a privileged and mono-cultural audience in the United States who would have responded very differently, and the third act seems to have been written with that in mind. This metatheatrical production is still very much worth seeing, however: it’s a thought-provoking play which uses a range of theatrical devices to support the hard-working and effective cast.

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Chris Abbott

Tambo and Bones plays at Theatre Royal Stratford East until 10 May, with further info here.