Liberation | Royal Exchange Manchester

A historically fascinating and emotionally involving look back at post-colonial liberation in the 1940's, Nyoni's rather naturalistic and simplistic piece is a highly capable piece, if not awkwardly paced and underwhelming at times. The terrific cast shines, and the feeling of heartfelt authenticity is strong, yet the piece never progresses further than being good into something remarkable.

When considering the fight for African liberation, one might not immediately think of Manchester, yet in this eye opening new piece by Ntombizodwa Nyoni, the Royal Exchange Theatre looks to local history, feeling especially revelatory for its local audiences. It's a piece that feels vital and important in its ability to teach, educate and hit close to home, yet dramatically the play struggles to conjure impact on its own terms, without relying on the inherent strength of its biographical source.

The Royal Exchange Theatre is a difficult space to direct pieces for; when successful it can produce creative, unique and stunning staging that captures intimacy and spectacle in equal measure, yet too easily it can also limit productions into static, awkward, and visually uninteresting presentations of strong actors. Unfortunately, Liberation is a case of the latter, as Monique Touko's direction does little to elevate the piece and find advantage within the 'in the round' auditorium.

Paul Will's set design is minimalistic, yet not in a way that particularly lends itself to the production: a rising and falling screen neatly indicates location and the passage of time, yet hardly feels congruous with the 1940's setting of the piece, nor the weathered and traditional stage. The same can be said for the sound design, score and lighting design that while often too flat to amp up the already slow paced piece, when they did shine felt too out of place for what works best as a firmly rooted period piece.

That being said, what does shine is the performance of the cast, who deliver deep characterisations of their historical figures. In particular Eric Kofi Abrefa as Kwame Nkrumah delivers a thoughtful and emotionally subtle performance, and is terrific in scenes opposite Eamonn Walker as George Padmore. Bringing to life non-fictional characters takes a level of grounding and understanding, and their performances in particular exceed in it. The same can be said for Leonie Elliot as Alma La Badie, who delivers a thrilling monologue towards the climax of the piece. It's a cast that has no weak links, and while the direction may at times limit the piece, the performances fulfil it with historical richness.

Liberation is a piece that asks audiences to reflect on history, yet never really challenges, presenting events in an almost documentary like sensibility of realism and understated-ness, yet never truly taking advantage of the play medium to further probe intriguing questions of allyship, inter-racial relationships and heritage. They're given attention, and discussion, and (perhaps one too many) monologues to vocalise character opinions on these topics, yet one is left wishing the play took a step further in being more authoritative over its content and inserting a stronger external voice.

For those looking for a historically interesting and knowledge enriching piece, Liberation delivers, yet it doesn't reach the greater heights that will leave any revelatory impression.

Liberation plays at Royal Exchange Manchester until 26th July 2025.

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Gifted tickets in return for an honest review | Photography by Isha Shah