For a bad moment it looks as if it is all going to be very RSC. There is the doddery old king at the back of the stage, there are his armed guards, and, oh look, here are a couple of messengers from another country with - what is it, a threat? (And delivered in what might well be rhyming couplets, with that odd RSC emphasis on every third word, like a newsreader.) Fortunately, the messenger gets his head cut off and handed back to his mate in a rather nice straw bag, and things just keep getting better.
Oroonoko is the story of an African prince. The first part is concerned with his youth and love affair with the lovely princess Imoinda; the second with their capture into slavery and his brave leadership of a revolt. The tale has been intermittently popular ever since it appeared in a novel by the pretty wonderful Aphra Behn. (The first woman playwright, at the end of the 17th century, she was also a spy and a traveller, and spent part of her youth alone in Surinam, where some of the action is set.)
It is easy to see why, since it manages to pack in treacherous royal advisers, loyal retainers, travel, beautiful princesses, handsome princes, true love, a bit of torture, and then gets in a few good jokes along the way. Sort of Tosca rolled into The Princess Bride, if you like.
Like all the best books, or plays, or films, Oroonoko takes us into another culture and shows us ourselves. By concentrating so much of the first part of the play in the West African kingdom of Coromantien, the adaptor (Biyi Bandele) gives us a context and culture behind the familiar images of the slave trade: we see the poetry and jokes and grace of the home from which the shackled men have been torn. There are funny scenes that make you jolt upright with laughter, and moments where an audience-wide snuffle develops, with much sneaky grabbing for handkerchiefs. I walked out with that odd, uplifted feeling that good drama lends an audience for a time. Perfect, and just in time for Christmas.
• In repertory until April. Box office: 0171-638 8891
