Nine Lives – Bridge Theatre, London

Review of the play Nine Lives at the Bridge Theatre. In line with my recent outings to the Bridge, this is another work with some great acting, and designed to make viewers angry at the situation imposed on asylum seekers in this country.

The Bridge: Bringing London Politically Engaged Theatre

Do you remember a while ago I was saying that I thought the ulterior motive of the Bridge’s reopening season was to make audiences angry at the government? Well Nine Lives is another Bridge monologue which proves this theory. And also another one which began life elsewhere, but which Nicholas Hytner has brought to London to include in this repertory season. Nine Lives debuted in 2014 in Glasgow and has been elsewhere since, but not since 2016. From what I understand Lladel Bryant has been playing the character of Ishmael in all stagings, including at the Bridge. His performance is certainly strong enough to indicate he knows the part and the character very well.

Nine Lives is a monologue by Zodwa Nyoni. A Manchester playwright, filmaker and poet, Nyoni already has an impressive list of achievements under her belt. Nyoni wrote this particular monologue during a stint as writer in residence at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. It comes from a programme (or season maybe) called A Play, A Pie and a Pint which the Playhouse and Oron Mor in Glasgow co-facilitated.

Nine Lives: an Asylum Seeker’s Story of Uncaring Britain

Nine Lives tells the story of Ishmael. Ishmael is a Zimbabwean asylum seeker who is forced to flee his home country after being outed. His partner David seems to have abandoned him, and he must navigate alone the hostile waters of British bureaucracy. He is forced to prove he is gay and why he likes having sex with men, deal with uncaring landlords and aggressive neighbours, try to live on £36 per week, and worry that even other asylum seekers will reject him if they know the reason for his claim.

Ishmael has been ‘dispersed’ to Leeds (part of a policy to send asylum seekers out of the main centres they typically arrive in, but which has mixed results in terms of community integration). The backdrop for the monologue is a series of locations where one can exist for free or for little money. Ishmael’s ‘safe’ spaces are a park, a cafe offering internet access, a drop-in session at a church.

Strong Performance from Lladel Bryant as Ishmael (and Many Other Characters)

In all of these Ishmael meets different characters, which Bryant inhabits physically and through a gift for accents and voices. There is the teenage mother reaching out to the man she thinks is named Sam, the bickering couple running the cafe, the Yorkshire drag queen, even a Jamaican mother kissing her teeth in disapproval at the teenage mother – a monologue within a monologue. Bryant is so good at inhabiting all of these people with a lightning-quick change of stance and voice. As a result, the play feels more fully peopled than it actually is. And he most definitely dances in heels better than I do.

Throughout the 50 minutes of Nine Lives at the Bridge, however, the urgent message is about the dignity of people who are in these situations against their will. Or rather the systematic way in which dignity and choice are denied them. Like An Evening With an Immigrant, Nine Lives shines a harsh and unflattering spotlight on the UK’s current policies and thereby the values it espouses. Through it all, however, shines the hope of real human connection, in the most trying of circumstances.

The day this review will be published is the end of the current run at the Bridge. Other monologues have had longer runs so perhaps this one will be too. In the meantime you can see an earlier staging here to get a feel for it.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 3.5/5

Nine Lives until 31 October 2020