Theatre review: An Evening with an Immigrant

Another trip to the Bridge Theatre's monologue rep season while I still can, and an artist who's become a firm favourite at the National, and who started working there while the current Bridge team were running it; though as An Evening with an Immigrant reveals, Inua Ellams might have more to thank Nick Starr for than just his big break. The story of his and his family's attempts to be made permanent, legal UK residents, which has taken more than half of his life so far, the blurb warns that there's some crossover with Ellams' breakthrough show The 14th Tale, but that was long enough ago that I don't remember much detail - there's passing mention here of Ellams' twin sister, who I think was a much bigger element in the earlier story. Here the focus is more on Ellams himself and his parents - with a Muslim father and Christian mother, the family manages to live harmoniously with their religious differences.

Unfortunately the same can't be said of their surroundings, and as their region of Nigeria becomes more extremist they're forced to seek asylum in the UK, where they've been putting their case forward more or less ever since (minus three years in Dublin after their lawyers lost their paperwork.) It's only recently that they finally got permanent residency status, and Ellams still hasn't been granted a UK passport (he's judged as not being of good enough character; he thinks it might be because of those little pens he stole from Argos.)

Facing racism and deliberate obstacles put in his way by successive Home Secretaries (even as he gets invited to a Buckingham Palace garden party in recognition of his work,) inevitably there's an anger here, but Ellams is such a gentle, humble presence that the anger is always just simmering underneath rather than dominating (he says he eventually became a rap fan, but his initial reaction was wondering why you'd take the time to put together beats then shout angrily over them.) Instead this remains a personal story that you can sometimes see links in to his other work (he regularly mentions loving basketball despite being no good at it, which is clearly where some elements of The Half God of Rainfall come from,) and reveals the exhaustingly lengthy and expensive process of immigration to rely as much on luck as judgment (one case may have gone his way because Starr recognised the judge as a National Theatre member and played up Ellams' contribution; in the most shocking revelation the family have a very lucky escape when it turns out the reason their lawyers disappeared was that they were selling client addresses to their persecutors.)

The format is of anecdotes introducing Ellams' poetry written at, or inspired by the time in the story he's got to. After a number of successful plays it feels a bit like him returning to his roots at poetry slams (he says he gave them up after playing a flooded poetry tent at Glastonbury to a tripping audience; theatre gives him a bit more of the control he craves.) It's not exactly the best fit to the Bridge - as I say he's quite a gentle presence that doesn't lend itself to huge socially-distanced spaces, and the show feels exposed as needing a bit more structure - but for the time being the kind of intimate spaces that match the intimate story aren't an option, and these kinds of stories are always needed.

An Evening with an Immigrant by Inua Ellams is booking in reportory until the 7th of November at the Bridge Theatre.

Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Murdo MacLeod / Oliver Holms.