WOLVES ON ROAD
Image credit: Helen Murray
In this day and age, it seems like there’s a million ways to make a million pounds: the question for many is how to get there the fastest.
Bold, fast and thrilling, Beru Tessema’s Wolves on Road shows us just how deep the love and desire for money goes, and the lengths that people will go to get it in abundance. On one hand, it’s a deep dive into the murky waters of the world of crypto, and the reality of making money online, but it’s also a play about the endurance of community and the idea that a strong foundation is the key to success.
Meet Manny (Kieran Taylor-Ford) and Abdul (Hassan Najib), two young East Londoners who just wanna make some money. Manny fancies himself an entrepreneur peddling “affordable luxury items” of questionable authenticity on his instagram to no avail. Ignoring the concerns of his hardworking and fiercely caring mother Fevan (Alma Eno) and her new boyfriend Markos (Ery Nzaramba), Manny is more than convinced that he’s going to make it big. When his plans go awry, Abdul makes him an offer that, while he does resist, he can’t refuse - the opportunity to make large amounts and quickly. So-called wolves have dominated financial hubs for decades, so what happens when these wolves are unleashed to East London roads?
Performed across modern and angular staging, mimicking the new builds littered across Canary Wharf, we watch Abdul convert Manny into a crypto wolf. Under the tutelage of the elusive but omnipresent Devlin, the head of European outreach of the rapidly growing cryptocurrency platform, DGX, our duo sink deeper and deeper into the mysterious world of crypto.
Najib is enticing as Abdul. He embodies both the devil and angel on Manny’s shoulder, while offering glimpses into the morality behind his relentless pursuit ― he wants to take care of his father, and his identity as a Somali man has sometimes been a hindrance to his own success. Taylor-Ford is equally impressive, as we bear witness to the changes in Manny’s character as the story progresses. He goes from hopeful and eager, to extremely ambitious but uncomfortably so, constantly agitated and temperamental.
Set in 2021, the economic fallout of the pandemic affected working class communities disproportionately, and we see this represented perfectly by Nzaramba as Markos. Through his character, Tessema educates us on the plight of many East Africans, separated from their loved ones by way of human trafficking, whether that be trying to escape from it or falling victim to it. Meanwhile, Eno as Fevan is earnest, and brings home the important message of integrity. Fevan stands firm in her stance, championing the slow and steady of building a foundation for oneself brick by brick in the real world, and from the ground on which they stand.
Jamael Westman also delivers a standout performance as Devlin, embodying the charismatic leader of his cult-like audience, balancing the complexity of wanting to better his community and overcome “system fuckries” stacked against them, but doing so through morally ambiguous means.
The play explores several debates about human nature and the pursuit of success: the individual versus the collective; taking the long road versus getting rich quick; pursuing your dreams or shouldering responsibility and characters take us on a journey to find the answers. Tessema’s script quotes the well-known scripture of 1 Timothy 6:10 which says “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” and this is perhaps the strongest message of the play. We discover whether or not it is possible to stray so far and find redemption.
Daniel Bailey expertly directs a strong cast, that is truly original and unique and delivers a play that is full of energy and humour. While somewhat slow to start, the pace picks up and doesn’t drop until the end. Our emotions rise and plummet like the DGX stocks projected onto the walls of the stage that Manny and Abdul pour their lives into, but we are ultimately rooting for them. Considering how high the stakes were for our characters, the play’s ending did feel slightly anti-climatic, but overall ingenious, funny and electric, Wolves on Road is a must watch.
★★★★☆
By Melody Adebisi