COMPLEX and strangely haunting, “The Faithful Servant” meanders through the audience at The Street Theatre like a river of dreams, ideas and relationships on a personal and political level; the scope of which is rarely attempted. With a Ph D in Political Science, Davis has applied his knowledge, passion and understanding of social and political implications of cross-cultural engagement in a way that is fresh and challenging.

Eliciting powerful performances from the cast Tariro Mavondo, Dorian Nkono and Peter Williams, the director, Caroline Stacey, has opted to transform the theatre into an intimate space bringing the audience close to the action. With beautiful ambiguity, the images sometimes hang in a void leaving the audience to ponder and offer their own interpretations.

This is a strength of the work. The television promotions and the connection with well-intentioned “hope” keep a jarring meta-language that hovers over the personal stories of the characters. How the audience interprets the meaning of this challenging connection is difficult to gauge.

Peter Williams has created an almost iconic character in Dr Raymond Gerrard. He is very complex and flawed with an idealism that is both admirable and suspect. The detailed shaping of this characterization is a master-class in performance. Tariro Mavondo’s multiple characters were well differentiated with striking mannerisms and intensities that challenged any sense of the play’s falling into cliché. Dorian Nkono displayed many nuanced emotions and contained a kind of pent-up frustration that focused the main contradictions within the play.

Some scenes drag at times beyond the necessary point being made. It means the flow is disrupted and the ideas become lost in details that, while interesting, seem like tangents to the central narrative.

This said, The Street Theatre team is doing our community a big favour by presenting and developing such a penetrating theatre production with potential for a much wider audience.