The Clinic at Almeida Theatre. Photo: Marc Brenner

THE man of the house, Segun (Maynard Eziashi), is dancing in the family’s kitchen soon to be joined by his glamorous wife Tiwa (Donna Berlin), the table is set, the wine open and the cake – a Nigella delight – is in the oven.

It’s the night before Segun’s 60th birthday and their son, Bayo (Simon Manyonda), daughter-in-law Amina (Mercy Ojelade) and daughter, Ore (Gloria Obianyo) have all turned out. Boasting a best-selling psychotherapist, a women’s shelter volunteer, a policeman, a Labour MP and a trainee doctor, the Nigerian-British family – self-described as a “clinic” for its collective expertise – is a picture of success.

But when Wunmi (Toyin Ayedun-Alase), a grieving and suicidal widow with a baby son, takes up Ore’s offer of coming to stay with the family, it is clear the home is not fit for a fairy tale.

Yet Dipo Baruwa-Etti’s The Clinic isn’t without fantasy. Tiwa’s “special tea” seems to fuel Wunmi’s transformation into a homemaker, while Paul Wills’s kitchen set flashes with flames as tensions run high.

The play throws into sharp relief the indisputable disparity in opportunities between people of different class and race, in particular between black people of different class. But the play doesn’t placate by successfully bridging these gaps – that would be a fantasy too far.

What it does do, however, is make subtle suggestions that these gaps could be bridged. Labour MP Amina’s despair at the state of British politics doesn’t subsume her belief that change can happen from within. And Ore’s conviction that “we need to open our eyes” paired with her frustration at having not yet defined her activism hints at the possibility of change from without.

Monique Touko’s production is by turns funny, thrilling and unsettling. From Ore’s sardonic humour to the explosive debates about racism, politics, and policing, and from the siblings’ cattiness to the power that Wunmi wields over the family, there is no stopping this whirlwind of a play.

Until October 1
almeida.co.uk