MUMBO JUMBO

by Glendinning, Robin

Joint-winner of the 1985 Mobil Playwriting Competition and premiered at the Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre, this play recently enjoyed a highly successful run at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. Set in a Protestant boys’ public school in present-day Belfast, this both humorous and touching play centres on the sexual discovery and political awakening of two classmates, the poetic and idealistic Dunham, and his fiercely Orange friend, Creaney. School is seen as a world which both reflects and reinforces the rigid tribalism and sectarianism of Ulster politics. The schoolboys’ chant of Vachel Lindsay’s menacingly rhythmic poem, The Congo, acts as a powerful central metaphor, weaving its way relentlessly through the action of the play as it mesmerizes the innocent young minds. “Robin Glendinning…. one of our most interesting new arrivals. An original and buccaneering sensibility, full of dark humour and fearless common sense ... a play of intellectual ferocity.” [ Sunday Times]