There's people with a mixed reputation, and then there's Haile Selassie, who ruled
Ethiopia for half of the Twentieth Century. Depending on who you ask he was
everything from a narcissistic dictator who watched his people starve to death while
he lived in luxury, to the literal Second Coming, with the religion built around him
- Rastafarianism - still thriving to this day (plus he seems perfectly nice on
Bake Off.) If there was any doubt that the subject's a controversial one you
could add the lone protestor outside the Young Vic tonight, with placards calling
Ryszard Kapuściński's book
The Emperor "literary colonialism." The book is
adapted for the stage by Colin Teevan and directed by Walter Meierjohann, reuniting
Kathryn Hunter with the team behind her tour-de-force
Kafka's Monkey.
