Detaining Justice, Tricycle Theatre

Powerful drama about asylum-seekers lacks strong ending

by Aleks SierzTuesday, 01 December 2009

Hallelujah: the prayer meeting scene in Detaining JusticeTristram Kenton

The plight of asylum-seekers is no laughing matter, but that doesn’t mean that dramas about the subject have to be worthy, or dull. In fact, young playwright Bola Agbaje’s Detaining Justice, which opened last night, is an exemplary mix of laughter and tears. As the final part of the Tricycle Theatre’s trilogy examining the state of the nation at the end of the new millennium’s first decade, this play confirms the feeling that much of the energy in new writing is coming from black writers.

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