In a London neighborhood populated by South Asians and Blacks from former British West Indies colonies, the owner of a modest take-out restaurant struggles to keep his adolescent son away from criminal life, while increasingly squeezed by the Black-on-Black violence of the local protection racket, which eventually explodes against him in a very personal way. The acting is wonderful, with veteran Cedric Young enjoying a fine showcase as the lusty and manipulative grandfather. The characters are quickly, deftly and truly drawn by British author Kwame Kwei-Armah. The final tragedy is real, even if the story of Elmina's Kitchen is old-hat.
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Playwright: Kwame Kwei-Armah. At: Congo Square at Chicago Center for the Performing Arts. Phone: 312-733-6000; $16.50-$32.50. Runs through: Oct. 14
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Although set in London and dressed up with several different British dialects, the story of a good man caught in a vise is familiar. Likewise, the thuggery of shake-downs and organized ghetto crime has been a fact of all ethnic ghettos—Irish, Jewish, Italian, Chinese, Greek, Latino, Black—seemingly forever. You find variations on such rackets, and on the father-son struggle, in plays by Sean O'Casey ( Irish, early 20th century ) , Clifford Odets ( American, Great Depression ) and August Wilson, among many others.
Congo Square has built much of its high reputation on its persuasive productions of August Wilson's plays about 20th-century U.S. Black life, so it's easy to see the attraction of Elmina's Kitchen by an author some have called a British August Wilson.
Well, not really. Kwei-Armah has Wilson's skill for creating rich characters within thin situations, and of driving forward subplots that really don't impact the main story and themes. He has, if you will, a sensibility and sense of character that parallel Wilson in significant ways; but Kwei-Armah—at least on the evidence of this one play—does not have Wilson's sense of musical language and rhetorical flourish, nor Wilson's taste for mystical elements.
That's not a criticism of Kwei-Armah, but an analysis. He is, in fact, a fine slice-of-life playwright in the Clifford Odets mode, and certainly creates strong opportunities for actors. Fortunately, in Congo Square and director Derrick Sanders, he has found the company to do Elmina's Kitchen justice. Mixing Congo Square veterans with newcomers to his theater's stage, Sanders has guided his players to feisty individual performances that nonetheless coalesce into a close-knit ensemble, sustaining Elmina's Kitchen through its occasional thin spots. All are excellent, but in addition to Young one must cite Congo Square vet Anthony Irons as the restaurant owner. An actor of emotional and physical authority, Irons here reins himself in to project the brooding and increasingly desperate nature of the play's tragic hero.
The scenic design by Nick Mozak—the take-out shop interior—is deliberately nondescript, although it serves its purpose. But there must be something besides soccer posters that would make it look more British.