@ Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh until Sat 3 Oct 2015
Heart-warming and thought-provoking, Guy Hollands’ production of Nalina Chetty’s Kontomble, the first play of A Play, A Pie and A Pint this season, explores notions of community through the lives of three characters thrown together by simple coincidence, and heavy rain.
It starts with an encounter at a bus stop during a downpour in Glasgow. Ezra (Miles Yekinni), a first-time visitor to the city, meets Ray (Keiran Gallacher) a teenager with mental health problems, which manifest in the form of hallucinations. Beginning as strangers, they bond over ideas of community, of knowledge, and attempt to try a completely unorthodox way of healing, much to Ray’s aunt Ruth’s (Beth Marshall) disagreement.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Kontomble is a play about contrasts, about differing attitudes and clashing rituals. Chetty’s script portrays Ezra as a mysterious modern day shaman (the play’s full title is Kontomble: The Shaman and the Boy), with Ray as his dedicated follower, convinced that the methods and community that Ezra preaches will cure him of his terrifying hallucinations. Although performed by an exceedingly strong cast, especially Gallacher as Ray, the play never goes into any real detail regarding Ezra’s seemingly unorthodox methods. This could be a deliberate ploy by Chetty, as the absence of information makes Ezra’s presence and Ray’s journey all the more insightful, but it can come across as a little too implausible.
But it’s because of this that some parts of the play ring so true; at the heart of it, this is a well-intentioned piece about imperfect people struggling to make the best of their imperfect circumstances. We see what is missing in the lives of the characters, we see where the idea of community, of ritual and care would benefit them greatly, which makes Kontomble a thoughtful and heartening start to the new season of A Play, A Pie and A Pint.