First Night Review: The Hounding of David Oluwale
The Hounding of David Oluwale by Oladipo Agboluaje
- Eclipse Theatre
- Hackney Empire until Saturday
(Image courtesy of Ewan Thompson PR)
When David Oluwale’s body was dragged out of the river Aire in 1969, an investigation began, which led to two police officers being put on trial for manslaughter. They were found not-guilty, but both were convicted of assaulting the 38-year-old Nigerian. The light sentence remains to date, the only successful prosecution of police officer in British history.
Oladipo Agboluaje’s transfixing adaptation of the book, written by Kester Aspden after the case became available to view in 1999, begins at the moment Oluwale’s body is discovered. The audience then plays witness to a jigsaw reconstruction of his life, gleaned from the tenacious notes made by Perkins, a Scotland Yard inspector who was dedicated to unearthing the brutality and prejudice which lead to Oluwale’s death.
Daniel Francis is stunning as the lead. Portraying the twitches and convulsions of a man subjected to powerful medication, shock treatment and continual beatings, he physically conveys the inhumanity with which those deemed to be different can be treated. His contagious charisma in scenes set before and shortly after his arrival in the UK only makes his subsequent degeneration more haunting.
Perhaps excused by the new setting for this touring production, the play is let down slightly by some poorly positioned staging and the diction could at times be clearer from all.
But no audience could leave this production without feeling a shared understanding and utter revilement of the brutalising treatment which can reduce a bright and confident young man to a cowering animal-like creature.
Interview with Doreen Lawrence after the performance
After the play, Stephen Lawerence’s mother, Doreen, joined a panel discussion on discrimination in the police force. I caught up with her afterwards to ask her how she felt the play could make a difference. This is the video I made:
