Liberation review — it's Conclave, but for pan-African politics

Times

03-07-2025

In 1945 the fifth Pan-African Congress was held in Manchester. It began 41 days after the end of the Second World War: a liberation for Europe, but not for countries still under colonial rule. In her new play at the Royal Exchange, part of Manchester International Festival, Ntombizodwa Nyoni has seized on a historical occasion that is rich with dramatic potential and plump with political meat to chew on. It marries the neatly local (the congress takes place at Chorlton Town Hall) and the truly global, as activists and politicians gather for what will become a turning point in the fight for freedom and independence.
Liberation is ambitious: there's a large cast, portraying real figures, as well as an enormous sweep of international struggle to condense into two hours' playing time. Sometimes the heavy work of making it all digestible is still too clearly visible — the first half can thud with exposition rather than sing with believable human interaction. Even in the more bantering, lively scenes set in a jazz bar (with delicious music by Ezra Collective's Ife Ogunjobi bubbling beneath) people tend to sound like mouthpieces for political tracts or conflicting positions.
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But once the groundwork is laid, the second half takes off with the seeds of personal drama Nyoni has sown now sprouting. Individual ambition is pitted against commitment to the cause, as a new generation of leaders emerge: think Conclave but for pan-African politics.
At the heart of the play is Kwame Nkrumah (Eric Kofi Abrefa), an impatient, wildly confident young Ghanaian determined to prove himself to the congress leader George Padmore (Eamonn Walker). But the personal cost of activism is also revealed in multiple ways, with Nyoni particularly good at centring gratifyingly complex women who, whether they lead or serve the movement, always get overlooked by men.
Monique Touko's production, flowing over Paul Wills's honeycomb parquet floor, is blessed with excellent performances. Pamela Nomvete is particularly majestic as Amy Ashwood Garvey, bringing fierce charisma to anticolonial speeches and a comic lasciviousness that provides welcome laughs in this pretty talky play. Leonie Elliott intelligently inhabits the thorny contradictions of Alma La Badie, a social worker who deals out harsh truths but also yearns for black women in the movement to be softer, more supportive.
Not every character feels this rounded — there just isn't time. But if Liberation is only intermittently satisfying, it is always interesting, animating a chapter of British history that deserves to be better known.★★★★☆140minTo July 19, royalexchange.co.ukFollow @timesculture to read the latest reviews