Young Vic, London; Royal Exchange, Manchester
Patrice Lumumba was democratically elected prime minister of Congo on 23 June 1960. Seven days later, the country gained independence from Belgian colonial rule. By January 1961 Lumumba was dead – shot in murky circumstances that involved Congolese dissenters and foreign powers. His story is the core of Martinican poet, playwright and politician Aimé Césaire's 1966 "decolonisation drama" A Season in the Congo. It's a play I've been curious to see since first reading it on returning from a stay in the country more than a decade ago, while never really believing that any one actor would be capable of the lead part.
The role of Lumumba requires a combination of seemingly irreconcilable characteristics: easy amiability with explosive oratorical power; canny political acumen with poetic vision. It demands a hero of classic stature in a 20th-century reality, able to convince as a man and to embody the idea of a nation.
Patrice Lumumba was democratically elected prime minister of Congo on 23 June 1960. Seven days later, the country gained independence from Belgian colonial rule. By January 1961 Lumumba was dead – shot in murky circumstances that involved Congolese dissenters and foreign powers. His story is the core of Martinican poet, playwright and politician Aimé Césaire's 1966 "decolonisation drama" A Season in the Congo. It's a play I've been curious to see since first reading it on returning from a stay in the country more than a decade ago, while never really believing that any one actor would be capable of the lead part.
The role of Lumumba requires a combination of seemingly irreconcilable characteristics: easy amiability with explosive oratorical power; canny political acumen with poetic vision. It demands a hero of classic stature in a 20th-century reality, able to convince as a man and to embody the idea of a nation.
- 7/20/2013
- by Clare Brennan
- The Guardian - Film News
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