Abstract
Isaiah Matthew Wooden reviews "Les Blancs". By Lorraine Hansberry, final text adapted by Robert Nemiroff. Directed by Yaël Farber. Olivier Theatre, National Theatre, London. May 31, 2016.
Set in a fictional East African country on the verge of revolution, the legacy of white colonialism is challenged by a growing movement for black liberation and independence. When Tshembe Matoseh, the English educated son of a chief, returns home to bury his father, he encounters vast changes in his family and country. His teenage brother is nearly an alcoholic and his older brother has become a priest and traitor to his people. At the same time Charlie, an American journalist, arrives to report on the local missionary hospital and its workers. Forswearing politics and wishing only to return to his wife and child in England, Tshembe is drawn into the conflict around him. When peaceful negotiations break down, and violence erupts, each brother is forced to choose where his loyalties lie.