House of Ife, a house of lies, a house of layers, a house of misplaced hope, and honestly a house many of us probably grew up in. Written by Beru Tessema an actor, writer, and director doing work for stage and screen. Born in Ethiopia and raised in London, he brings his personal experience of moving between cultures in this epic play that brings to question what it truly means to transition between cultures and the pressures that come with familial and cultural expectations. I’ll tell you right now, I don’t necessarily agree with the story’s conclusion but I love the story told and think there is something there for everyone to take away.
Okay, but before we get to the juiciness of the story, let me set the stage for the production itself!
Location & Production
Bush Theatre!!! I’ve never actually been to Bush theatre before so I had no idea what to expect going in. Seated exactly opposite shepherds bush station it’s a hard spot to miss!
It’s a really cozy spot with an open bar and gender-neutral bathrooms. It was a bubbly vibe going into the space with lots of people chatting and being friendly with each other. A sense of “stranger familiarity” hugged the room, the common goal of supporting this production really made friends out of all of us. Of course, the awkward person I am, made talking to people a near impossibility, after several exchanges of accidental looks, I finally managed to ask someone where the bathroom was! A truly magical experience.
Anyway, we go in. Dim lights, so we know it’s a proper theatre experience. The seats did not compliment people with vertical blessings i.e tall people. But the actual set for acting I think was really ingenious, I’ll draw a picture below:
Essentially you had the audience surrounding a rectangular stage. The stage itself was a cuboid sans the longer walls on either side so the audience could see into the room being imagined. The roof of the cuboid had LED lights that changed to reflect the time of day, transitions, etc. Honestly, I hadn’t seen a stage like that before so it was cool to see; definitely added to that whole immersive feeling.
I believe the play itself, ran for something like 2 hrs but I can tell you it felt like 10mins. I got so sucked up into the story that the passage of time got long forgotten. Without me spoiling too much though, let me explain.
Story - Character Highlights
Can I just say, the cast for this play was phenomenal!! 2 characters stood out to me in this story, Tsion, the middle child, played by Yohanna Ephrem. In the midst of the turmoil happening in the house, she took the job of holding the family together, paying for her father’s plane ticket when he wasn’t able to make the flight. She’s the emotional pillar for her siblings and the lowkey background provider for the family. You can tell she also wants to act out at times but believes her role in the family is more important. I related to those feelings very much! I felt for her especially at the end of the story when truths were being surfaced. she spoke about troubles she was having only to find out that even she didn’t have the full picture.
The other character that stood out to me was Solomon, played by Jude Akuwudike, the father of the house. He left the house selling the dream of building a home for the family in Ethiopia whilst having another family in there. The true antagonist of the story. This character stood out to me because of how truly real he is, and we learn so much about him through the complex emotions every member of the family has towards him. Meron his wife played by Sarah Pidddy has cautious love for the man she truly believes in and loves but with the knowledge that he can’t fully be trusted and as he has past sins, he’s yet to acknowledge. Aida his oldest daughter played by Karla-Simone Spence is a phenomenal performer who has deep anger against her father for not providing the support or acceptance her elder brother needed. In her eyes, he’s the perpetrator of the issues the family has suffered. To be honest, I disliked this character the most, not because of her views but her method of sharing them. The youngest sibling Yosi played by Michael Workeye, has a deep trust and respect for his father as he attempts to define what being a man means to him. And of course, Tsion, similar to her mother has a cautious love for her father, willing to do what she can for him but never losing herself in his words.
Again a phenomenal cast! Each actor portrays their characters in the most genuine way possible. Allowing us as the audience, with each interaction between the family members to learn something new about the characters as the plot thickens till the truths explode at the end.
Story - Themes
I don’t want to give too much of the story away because it’s something better experienced than spoken about. Though I’ll definitely write a separate article about the themes, and how it reflects the African Diasporic experience. 3 themes stuck out to me in this story:
Home is where the heart is
People of the diaspora face an interesting choice because the question of “where is home?” is very real, and something I’ve brought up before. The family highlighted in this story has both the experience of living in Ethiopia and coming to the UK for a better life. Some of the kids experienced both the old home and the new, whilst others just know the new but have been given dreams of peace in Ethiopia. For the kids who experienced both the new and the old, Aida was able to adapt rather easily perhaps cause she was younger, whilst the older one Ife struggled. Which along with familial frictions led to internal conflicts resulting in the premise of the story, morning the death of Ife. There is a much deeper story there but that is just a quick summary.
The question of where is home is a serious one, it’s something I’ve struggled with personally. But it’s very easy to take for granted, what it means to have a place that you can call you’re own. Between friends, environment, and all in between it’s a lot easier to move forward when you have the foundation of a home to stand on, return to, and build up off. Not all the children in the story could necessarily relate to that, and Solomon had as much trouble accepting that. Solomon’s perspective also highlights the cultural difference in what it means to be a man. Solomon being a pastor and somewhat of a community leader in Ethiopia, had a certain outlook on manhood. It’s hinted in the final confrontation, that Ife resisted a lot of the cultural norms of what it means to be a man, enjoying barbie shoes and the like. Solomon struck out at him perhaps out of shame, perhaps out of anger but it leads into the next theme.
What does it mean to be a man?
I’m a male myself and the oldest child. So this theme stood out to me like a sore thumb (not sure if that was the playwright’s intent but hey). I just want to say in general, in today’s world personally, it’s been very hard to understand what it means to be a good man. This story tells 3 different scenarios of it:
- In the older generation, the ideals a lot of the diaspora understand from the cultural heritage.
- Transitioning, and what the eldest child was going through in the formative years of their life with much resistance from the head of the household.
- Stepping up, which is was the youngest boy the now man of the house had to do and is learning to do.
I’m not sure if any of the characters handled it particularly well. But each approach resonated with me very much. Decisions are made, and things are said, in all honestly each from a place of wanting to do the right thing. However, when decisions are made in isolation, and responsibilities are shouldered before one is ready things tend to go wrong. Everyone decides for themselves how they see the situation and the truth get’s buried underneath the secrets; this is what the last theme is about.
Truth
To say the least, this is a house of secrets, hidden in the past, hidden in closets, hidden in the closest darkness anyone can find. All in the hope that not talking about it will make the problem go away…but it didn’t, it exploded and hit everyone in different ways. The final confrontation showed that everyone in a way was an accomplice to the buried anger in the house, everyone was hiding their own truth and their own grievances about the situation. It was amazingly done, because in these revelations we got to know a character that was not even in the play, Ife. It’s amazing that as the layers of mystery get pulled back the question of Ife’s truth gets thrust into the mix. Through the confrontation, we pieced together Ife’s experience transitioning to the UK, troubles he had at school, troubles he had at home, what led him to drugs, and how he acted after. It was very illuminating. I’m not sure how I would have acted in that situation and I won’t say too much to allow people to come to their own conclusion but the main thing I got was, that there is no real thing called the definite right answer, but honesty and collaboration tend to get you closer to that right in more cases than not.
Conclusion
My guy Beru Tessema, you are mad! In a good way. This play was amazingly written, with so many very real themes being interwoven to build the layers that make this family so relatable and so real. I connected with every character in my own way, so much so that I can very much imagine myself being in that house and saying my own piece. I would 100% recommend this play and am curious how you feel about the ending.
