Elmina's Kitchen

5 / 5 stars 5 out of 5 stars.
National Theatre, London
Elmina's Kitchen, National Theatre
Elmina's Kitchen: an angry, provocative, vital play.

Guns, drugs, crime, racism, the effects of single parenthood, the ease with which young black men reject education, the troubled relationship between black Britons and "back home", the frustrated desire to achieve... Kwame Kwei-Armah's play covers an awful lot of bases.

What makes Elmina's Kitchen remarkable, however, is his ability to address all these issues without hectoring. He takes us behind the headlines from Hackney's Murder Mile, bringing a human face to London's gang violence and showing how easy it is to make the wrong choice when struggling to survive.

Kwei-Armah focuses on three generations of black men: Clifton, who abandoned his wife Elmina before his sons were in their teens; his youngest son Deli, who runs a shabby West Indian restaurant; and Deli's son Ashley, a 19-year-old rudeboy with a burning ambition to own a BMW. In their fraught relationships, we see the depressing domino effect that can occur when a father fails to live up to his responsibilities - be that teaching a son about respect, protecting him when in trouble, or allowing him to improve his life when opportunity comes.

Deli may have learned, during his stint in prison, that crime doesn't pay, but he has never successfully conveyed this to his son. Instead, Ashley is seduced by Deli's flash friend Digger, a ruthless criminal with several mobile phones and an outsize ego. Digger is a highly entertaining character, but terrifying, too. His speech de-glamorising gun culture is a brutal warning of how far he is willing to go. There is an inevitability to what follows; even so, when the violence comes, it is devastating.

Kwei-Armah writes exquisitely, in a language that is peppery, poetic and full of wit; he articulates each theme without forcing his characters to be artificially articulate. The cast in Angus Jackson's absorbing Cottesloe production don't always do the text justice, not least because their West Indian accents often run awry.

As Deli, Paterson Joseph has a habit of rolling his eyes whenever confronted with big emotions. Shaun Parkes, however, perfectly captures Digger's mix of easy humour and menace, and George Harris is deliciously spry as sleazy Clifton, proud to be "coarse as swordfish skin".

This is an angry, provocative, vital play, one that demands change in society while recognising that there are no easy solutions, and is passionately political while understanding that the best way to communicate with people is to keep them entertained. It is thrilling to see it at the National - and will be even more thrilling if it inspires other black playwrights to follow its lead.

· In rep until August 25. Box office: 020-7452 3000.