Home is more than just an abstraction for Zina, the thirteen-year-old protagonist of A Concrete Jungle Full of Wild Cars, a promising - if uneven - new drama from Mariama Ives-Moiba, winner of the Trinity College London International Playwriting Competition. For Zina, a refugee newly arrived in England from war-torn Sierra Leone, home is palpable presence, even in its absence. This metaphor becomes literal when Zina is given a magical bracelet that allows her to see into the present and future, gaining supernatural insight into the fate of her country and her missing brother Baakir, now a conscripted child soldier.
The play's central conceit is a powerful one; if we could choose to see the truth about those we love, however atrocious, would we instead choose to shut our eyes? Powerful, too, is the exploration of how Zina, along with two of her siblings, fits into her new London surroundings. Though rich with thematic possibility, the piece never fully finds its feet. Zina's reaction to London is undeveloped despite a show-stealing performance from Kandance Caine as her newfound Londoner friend Jasmine; plus the final scenes of the show devolve into adventure-novel cliche and an all-too-tidy ending, diminishing the thematic impact of the ring's power. The dialogue veers from the extremely clever (a conversation about cuttlefish eyes is particularly lively) to the somewhat banal (many of Zina's monologues are overwritten).
The performances are largely good, with standout showings from Caine and from Elizabeth Alabi as the siblings' grandmother, who exudes joyful gravitas despite playing a role sixty years her senior. There's still a touch of directorial awkwardness in some of the proceedings - the blocking is on-the-nose rather than subtle. But Ives-Moiba is a promising voice - certainly one to watch - and Concrete Jungle at its best is a compelling, original perspective on exile, conflict, and learning to what it means to be home.
