A drama about cryptocurrency couldn’t be more timely: with the market surging again, Beru Tessema’s Wolves on Road opens at the Bush scarcely 24 hours after the incoming US administration announced it’s putting Elon Musk in charge of a new government department whose name is basically a convoluted crypto in-joke.
Wolves on Road centres on the rather more earthbound figure of Manny (Kieran Taylor Ford), a feckless wannabe hustler living with his mum in Bow in the spring of 2021 while frittering away his energy on a series of misguided get rich quick schemes.
Speaking of which: his best friend Abdul (Hassan Najib) has got into crypto, and after a bit of cajoling persuades Manny to do likewise. He spends his last £500 on bitcoin; the next morning he discovers it’s gone up in value tenfold. The boys are hooked, and ingratiate their way into the employment of local crypto entrepreneur Devlin, an agent for cryptocurrency exchange DGX.
What Daniel Bailey’s production captures really well is the energy, enthusiasm and underlying societal disaffection of the two puppyish young leads – after directing West End transfer smash Red Pitch, Bailey feels like the absolute go to guy for depicting young Black male camaraderie on stage. Tessema’s dialogue fizzes and pops a treat, but he’s as good at portraying Manny’s flaws as his charm.
However, it’s lacking in incisiveness on its subject – ultimately cryptocurrency and its 2021 crash feels more like the backdrop to a story about two pals than what the play is actually about. Which is a shame because Tessema has some genuinely interesting thoughts on crypto. The second half begins with a lengthy monologue by the charismatic Devlin – who is currently played by Hamilton star Jamael Westman, although only until November 23 – whose sell on digital currency is fascinatingly utopian, accusing old fashioned money transfer services like Western Union of being a form of colonialist oppression. Whether or not that’s fair, his passion is startling, and Tessema smartly nails the antiestablishmentarianism and mistrust of social institutions that clearly goes hand in hand with cryptocurrency advocacy.
But in making Devlin a kind of cameo role, the playwright hedges his bets on what he really wants to say about crypto – ultimately the play is about a group of people who get scammed. However, it retains a strategic ambiguity over whether crypto is inherently flawed or if it simply lacks ethical leadership.
It’s also a little rambling – a subplot about Manny’s mum’s efforts to open a restaurant is not totally extraneous, but it saps the story’s punchiness.
Wolves on Road is an entertaining, energetic play that speaks of a writer not quite ready to leave his comfort zone of zingy dialogue for relatable young men. But as the Devlin monologue shows, Tessema is at his best when he pushes himself furthest.
