★★★☆☆Tea — what could be more British? Our traditional love of a cuppa is, of course, inextricably linked to our colonialist past. And it assumes a powerful symbolic significance in Janice Okoh’s new play, a strong brew of contemporary racial politics and historical fantasia, directed by Dawn Walton for the touring company Eclipse. With passion and freewheeling, time-travelling flair, Okoh confronts imperialism and cultural appropriation over the course of three excruciating tea parties; sharp and shameful truths served up among the social niceties, sugar lumps and finger sandwiches. Okoh’s jumping-off point is an extraordinary and largely neglected true story: that of Sarah Forbes Bonetta (born Omoba Aina), a Yoruban princess who was captured as a young girl by the king of Dahomey, rescued from

Source: The Times January 30, 2020 17:15 UTC