Review: BRENDA'S GOT A BABY, New Diorama Theatre

After a brief hiatus from summer 2022 to earlier in the year, the program at the New Diorama is in full swing. They even announced a new artistic director, Bec Martin, who’s taking the lead from January, succeeding David Byrne in the post.

After a few commercial hits and transfers to the West End, Nouveau Riche reunite with Jessica Hagan for a new comedy that explores the absurd pressures thrust upon women by society. A sudden breakup and her family’s constant comparisons to her happily wedded younger sister push Ama to look into having a baby on her own. It’s nothing short of an odyssey. There’s plenty to like in Hagan’s writing and the cast are unquestionably and hilariously brilliant, but this play is, unfortunately, incohesive and inconclusive. 

The dialogues are generally quick and relatable with exchanges that reliably get hearty laughs, but it unfalteringly tips into overly curated turns of phrase that nudge forward the artifice of it all. She introduces a number of well-presented issues, from the role of marriage in the modern day to the struggles of trying to find a black sperm donor through hilarious characters, but never seems to pin them down and analyse them thoroughly. They’re as close-knit as a family can get, peppered with a bunch of red flags and toxic traits that spice up their home.

Michelle Asante is the mother, an autocratic figure with the destructive tendency to make everything about herself. She is loving and speaks a lot of sense by the end, but her flaws become the butt of the joke rather than the opportunity for an investigation of the problems that come with the core beliefs of a certain generation. Regardless, Asante is a whirlwind, storming the stage with a presence that’s larger than life and a silver tongue reflected in her children. Alongside her stand Jade and Skippy, Ama’s married sister and her husband.

Young and amusing, they excel at conforming to traditional ideals but don’t have any other accomplishments. Jahmila Heath and Edward Kagutuzi are delectably annoying, a crystal clear mirror for Ama to dwell on her alleged failures as a woman after she is horribly dumped by her six-foot boyfriend of eight years, Dami, played by a perfectly flippant Jordan Duvigneau. Careless in his approach to Ama’s needs and frankly horrible to her on multiple occasions, Duvigneau is the catalyst of an astonishing plot twist (the reaction of the audience on press night was priceless). He weaves the scene meticulously, playing with the comic tension of the situation, blind to Ama’s stunned silence, steadily on his way to his big reveal. An excellent moment.

Antia-Joy Uwajeh is wonderful. Her skilled, nimble alterations in tone and great timing build a flexible performance. Irritated by the consistent disregard of her accomplishments (buying a house in London, the advancement of her career), she still believes the idea that only a marriage and babies are the mark of real success. Though the progressive deterioration of her mental health isn’t addressed as well as it could be in the text, she gives a convincing, subtle (perhaps a tad too subtle) descent into a nervous breakdown. She’s the undisputed star of the show.

The company is directed by Anastasia Osei-Kuffour with a rather frontal, ordinary vision. Uninspired scene changes set to thumping music don’t add much to scenes, which already have quite a bit of surplus material for what the story ultimately is. All in all, some more TLC on the creative front might be needed in order for the piece to turn into the hard-hitting comedy it could potentially be. Fewer flourishes in the language and a more decisive last quarter will do the trick, preventing it from being as all over the place as it is at this stage.

Brenda's Got A Baby runs at the New Diorama Theatre until 2 December.

Main Photo Credit: Guy J Sanders

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