Zambezi Express

NOTE: The following THREE-STAR review dates from September 2009 and this production’s London run at Riverside Studios. Our Edinburgh 2010 reviewer has added an extra star – for the company’s sheer joyous energy – and says, “If you liked Umoja, you’ll love this! And it’s the perfect antidote if your own festival stamina is starting to ebb.”

The Making of Zambezi Express is a show I would very much like to see. And it wouldn’t surprise me if Gerry Cottle, the circus impresario who has backed and co-created the massive African venture that is Zambezi Express, doesn’t have that very show up his sleeve. If it is up his sleeve, it’s a pity he hasn’t revealed it already; Zambezi Express as it stands is a perfectly engaging evening at the theatre, but is so lightweight it feels like a missed opportunity.

There’s an irony to taking a show from Zimbabwe and subtitling it The Happiest Show on Earth. Sure, happy work can come out of unhappy places, but the circus smiles and the wafer-thin plot of this football fairytale seem to hide hundreds of engrossing stories begging to be told. To bring 30 Zimbabweans to the UK to do a show is no mean feat. I just wish the show they were brought here to do had been more substantial.

Zambezi Express tells the story of Zilli, a slum kid from the small township of Bulawayo, who dreams of becoming a professional footballer. He answers an advert for a big city team who will compete in the World Cup and travels to South Africa. Despite his nervousness at being away from home and the oppression of bullies he scores the winning goal in the crucial match and returns home a hero.

It’s not much of a story to last over two hours. The show is massively padded with a series of production numbers – broadly traditional African dances in the first half and more modern, urban stuff in the second – mostly featuring the full thirty-strong company. The voices are amazing, the dancing’s good, the much-advertised circus skills are okay – but it feels like an ethnic cabaret on a cruise ship.

I really hope the talented, hardworking and infectiously engaging company, most of whom have never previously travelled outside their township, are paid well and can use this opportunity to develop their lives and their work back home. I felt sad at a missed opportunity to know more about the real tensions and the real dreams of gifted, articulate young artists from a beautiful if beleaguered country.

– Sarah Chew