Theatre reviews: Book of Mormon | Detained

Detained Oran Mor, Glasgow ★★★★

There’s a moment, near the beginning of smash-hit musical The Book Of Mormon, that absolutely captures in a few seconds the show’s breathtakingly smart and cheeky way with social satire.

A new generation of young Mormon missionaries are just graduating from training at the faith’s Salt Lake City HQ, and our two leading characters – Elder Price and Elder Cunningham – are about to leave for their first assignment in faraway Uganda.

The stage lights dim, and we are greeted by an exaggerated figure of a black African witch-doctor singing and chanting in an elaborate feathered costume. What terrible racist stereotype of Africa is this, we ask ourselves; and then – with a mixture of relief and embarrassment – we realise we are still in the airport in Utah, and the grotesque witch-doctor figure is some racist Mormon’s notion of a suitable send-off.

It’s a scene that acts as a cue for two-and-a-half hours of unrestrained hilarity, brilliantly delivered, as Adam Bailey’s arrogant star-student Price and Sam Glen’s hapless and chubby Cunningham set off on their big adventure, arriving in a Ugandan village beset by AIDS and warlord violence, but oddly and wittily resigned to its fate – resigned, that is, until the deeply confused Cunningham, thrown in at the deep end and preaching largely from his own lurid imagination, somehow manages to convince them that a better life is possible, for the Mormon baptised.

The toe-curling laugh-out-loud moments follow thick and fast, as the eight smartly-dressed white lads of the local Mormon mission vow in song to do away with any intrusive homosexual feelings (Turn It Off), and merrily appropriate the whole African continent to their own world-view (I am Africa), while Cunningham and his village squeeze (the lovely Nyah Nish) mistake pure lust for religious fervour (Baptise Me).

Casey Nicholaw’s choreography is fierce, hilarious and ground-breakingly brilliant; there are daft potted histories of Mormonism, and hugely entertaining nods to great musicals of the past, including The Sound of Music and The King And I.

And if there are still moments when we wonder what real Ugandans would make of this portrayal of their country, Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker’s brilliant 30-strong ensemble gives full, fast-paced and perfectly-timed value to every detail, in this gloriously bold satire on western religious culture at its most extreme, and ridiculous.

At Oran Mor this week, Michelle Chantelle Hopewell’s first Play, Pie, Pint drama Detained also reflects on the centuries long colonial relationship between the west and Africa; but here, the mood could hardly be more sombre.

Over seven scenes, reflecting a series of visits to the detention centre, the play explores the crisis that engulfs the friendship between two young black women in Scotland, after one of them is unexpectedly seized and detained by the immigration authorities, and threatened with deportation; and we watch as thoughtless, apolitical Bea – a British citizen with no idea of the suffering inflicted by the UK immigration system – is gradually shocked into recognition of her role in the detention of her friend and workmate Yemi, who is terrified of being returned to her native South Africa.

The play is short, almost more like a 40-minute sketch, than a play in itself. Yet the intensity of the interaction between the two women – as they rage, weep, despair and finally begin to heal their broken friendship – makes Detained a memorable theatrical experience; and in Caitlin Skinner’s production, an outstanding performance from Laura Lovemore as Bea, with a heartfelt and moving Titans Muthui as Yemi, holds the audience in thrall, in a debut play as gripping as it is timely, and challenging.

​The Book of Mormon is at the Playhouse, Edinburgh, until 2 November; Detained is at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 22-26 October.