Tambo & Bones

Dave Harris

Actors Touring Company, Stratford East, Royal and Derngate Northampton with Belgrade Theatre, Leeds Playhouse and Liverpool Everyman

HOME Manchester

April 1-5, 2025; 2hrs

Clifford Samuel and Daniel Ward in Tambo & Bones

Writer Dave Harris and director Mathew Xia have created a dilemma for reviewers. Tambo & Bones is

neither a play nor a musical, but a description of US racial policy from the past to the future, viewed

through the lens of the Black experience.

Yes, it has a start Samuel Becket would be proud of which, in a minstrel setting, allows actors Clifford Samuel (Tambo) and Bones (Daniel Ward) to riff on the nature of will, capitalism and an ability to sleep under a fake tree. They clearly enjoy this and, more to the point, show they have real talent for engaging with an audience; they are good actors.

But then the action cuts to a rap scene, with the loud, raucous music that appears to be de rigeur when all else fails. With words that - when they can be disentangled from the background - appear to be largely the "n" word and various expletives. This might be fine at a concert, but doesn’t cut the mustard in a play. The final scene is set in a future that is even more Dystopian than that of A Clockwork Orange (and without its film score).

The flier advertising suggests the show has ‘"sounds of gunfire, violence, ethnic violence, strong racial

language and themes some may find upsetting relating to race". Nowhere does it mention entertainment, which says it all...

More info and tickets here