Isobel Lewis

In recent years, the Bush Theatre has become London’s premium venue for gripping dramas about complex families and the secrets hidden between the generations. From Beru Tessema’s ‘House of Ife’ to Ambreen Ramzia’s ‘Favour’, these shows have a shared visual language too, wherein the stage at the Bush’s main space is transformed into a family home rich with detail and personal touches.  ‘My Father’s Fable’, directed by Rebekah Murrell, is the Bush’s latest production to riff on family secrets and identity, and while not quite as polished as some of the other offerings, it still packs a punch. Written by actor Faith Omole – best known for her role in Channel 4’s ‘We Are Lady Parts’ and the National Theatre’s ‘Standing at the Sky’s Edge’ – it centres on a British-Nigerian family who find skeletons emerging from the closet after the death of the family patriarch. Designer TK Hay’s set is the warmly lit front room where history teacher Peace (Tiwa Lade) lives with her boyfriend Roy (Gabriel Akuwudike). Peace and Roy appear the happy couple, but the jagged crack that cleaves through the ceiling of their home hints that things are more fractured than they seemed. The pair split up following the death of Peace’s father (who exists in the show as a whispery voice), but have since reunited and are now considering a potential move abroad. Yet Peace, unsure if she can leave her co-dependent mother Favour (a sublime Rakie Ayola) behind, is burying her head in the sand. Besides, it’s not th

British playwright Sami Ibrahim’s 2022 play ‘two Palestinians go dogging’, was a divisive one. Some praised the experimental dark comedy, set in Palestine in the year 2043. Others didn’t really know what was going on. But critics echoed that, no matter what, this unrelenting show stayed with you. Ibrahim’s follow-up, ‘Multiple Casualty Incident’, is just as unforgettable. In Jaz Woodcock-Stewart’s production, we’re thrown in with a group of employees at a medical aid charity who are in the second week of training before entering an area destroyed by war. Palestine isn’t mentioned by name, but after six months of stories from Gaza, it’s hard not to think of it. On stage: four figures, in what appears to be an unused office. It’s a matter of weeks until they fly across the world, and they need to be prepared. ‘We’re not political, but we do have a duty of care,’ group leader Nicki (Mariah Louca) warns. So they role play, assigning themselves as medical professionals and ‘primary actors’. Morals are easy to have in a philosophical debate, but how would they actually behave in these real-life real-life trolley problems? It might not sound like a laugh a minute, but there’s a lot of levity in Ibrahim’s script. The characters giggle in the room too, then unconvincingly caveat: ‘Sorry, that’s bad’. Among the trainees, the two doctors rub each other the wrong way. Sarah (Rosa Robson) is forthright and snarky, prone to the exact kind of ‘Guardian moral bollocks’ that Dan (Peter Corboy