Theatre review: Nine Lives

My last visit to the Bridge Theatre's initial season of monologues is to another tale of the precarious life of an immigrant seeking asylum in the UK, and after the religious persecution behind An Evening with an Immigrant, Zodwa Nyoni's Nine Lives gives us a man fleeing the country of his birth because it's dangerous for him to be gay there. But while his sexuality forms part of what he's looking for, as with Inua Ellams' play the need for somewhere to belong is a more important element of the story than what he's running away from. Ishmael (Lladel Bryant) has fled Zimbabwe after his relationship with another man was discovered; he tries to contact David, who left before him, but his ex seems to be ignoring all his Facebook messages.

In the meantime Ishmael has been moved to a barely-habitable flat in Leeds (Alex Chisholm's production originated at Leeds Studio) while he waits to hear about his asylum claim; not allowed to work, and with less than £40 to get him through each week, he has a lot of time to fill. Nine Lives is essentially a play about this state of limbo between a home that rejected him and a new one he hopes to make, but which is in no hurry to accept him. But while the key notes might be about rejection, indifference and casual cruelty, the focus is overwhelmingly on the positives he finds and the hope that remains. Nyoni has very much written the kind of monologue that an actor can really go to town on, and Bryant does so, portraying a varied cast of characters surrounding the narrator, and differentiating sharply between them.

And while we do meet a racist mugger and exploitative landlady (the voices of those assessing Ishmael's case are most notable by their absence,) we also get supportive church groups and the obligatory brassy drag queen when Ishmael braves a gay club to explore the side of him that was persecuted. But the story ultimately centres on a part of his life unconnected to his dangerous past and uncertain future, in his friendship with a single mother: When he meets Bex in a park he's at a low point and fabricates a new identity he likes better than his real one; as they keep meeting over the weeks Ishmael is tortured by the fact that he's made one real friend in England and has based their relationship on a lie. Nine Lives does of course hold up unpleasant truths about the treatment of asylum seekers but is much more interested in presenting their stories as real, complex people, and does so in such a disarmingly snappy, entertaining way that even though 55 minutes isn't a long running time to begin with, in Bryant's hands it seems even shorter.

Nine Lives by Zodwa Nyoni is booking in reportory until the 31st of October at the Bridge Theatre.

Running time: 55 minutes straight through.

Photo credit: Richard Lakos.