Eric Miracle, Natasha Mumba and Warona Setshwaelo in Copperbelt.Dahlia Katz/Supplied
- Title: Copperbelt
- Written by: Natasha Mumba
- Director: Nina Lee Aquino
- Actors: Natasha Mumba, Eric Miracle, Rick Roberts, Warona Setshwaelo, Makambe K. Simamba, Kapembwa Wanjelani, Kondwani Elliott Zulu
- Company: Soulpepper and National Arts Centre English Theatre
- Venue: Soulpepper Theatre
- City: Toronto
- Year: Runs to March 1
Eden Chileshe has a secret.
She’s a diligent employee, a young millennial with dreams of making it big in the high-stakes world of the mining industry. She’s a dealmaker who, on the surface, has it all: She dresses in stylish, well-fitting corporate pantsuits, and spends her limited free time with her older boyfriend, Peter, loved-up in a swanky apartment somewhere in Toronto. She’s funny, persistent and poised. Astrologically speaking, she’s probably a Leo or perhaps a Taurus.
But there’s another side to Eden – a complicated one, with tangled roots in Lusaka, Zambia. As it turns out, Eden’s connection to the mining industry runs deeper than a few late work nights and access to a corporate credit card. For Eden, copper mining isn’t just a vocation – it’s as much a part of her as her voice or her fingernails.
But, if Eden wants to keep her job – and her romantic partner, who she may or may not even like – none of that can ever come to light.
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Copperbelt, Natasha Mumba’s formidable debut play, traces fault lines between North America and Africa, uncovering the exploitation and corruption that make mineral mining so lucrative for the fat cats who run companies like Eden’s. The work carries hallmarks of a first script – its structure could be much tighter, its most emotional moments more earned – but on the whole, it’s a commendable premiere for Mumba, who stars in Copperbelt as Eden.
Indeed, Eden’s ambition within the play is reflected by the real-life efforts that went into bringing Copperbelt to the stage: The script was workshopped in Zambia, owing to its twin settings in Toronto and Lusaka, and at two-and-a-half hours, the play is longer than many new works, even by seasoned playwrights.
Dozens of miniature storylines collide to create Copperbelt’s central drama.Dahlia Katz/Supplied
But it’s long for a reason: Dozens of miniature storylines have to collide to create Copperbelt’s central drama. In many ways, the play is a continuation of TV shows such as Industry and Succession, interested not only in extreme wealth but in the fractured family dynamics that facilitate its proliferation.
Director Nina Lee Aquino’s production occasionally captures the sprawling nature of Copperbelt, as well as Mumba’s assertions that supply chains exploit vulnerable communities at every turn, and not just in the mines themselves.
But the world premiere, produced jointly by Soulpepper and National Arts Centre English Theatre, feels surprisingly rough in places. While Rachel Forbes’ costumes are excellent, revealing as much about the characters wearing them as their spoken lines and mannerisms, the designer’s large set overwhelms Soulpepper’s Baillie Theatre, leaving dead spots on the stage and taking up precious time during transitional sequences between scenes.
Aquino fills those transitions with stylized movement sequences which, at their best, suggest Eden’s memories, and the anxieties that accompany having a secret blow up in real time. Tawiah Ben M’Carthy’s choreography is sometimes effective, but more often it feels like a distraction from that massive, cumbersome set, which while in transit feels as if it could topple over at any moment. (It doesn’t help that the rest of Aquino’s staging tends to leave the actors curiously static, facing the audience directly as if presenting a sales pitch, rather than fully engaging with the other characters onstage.)
Copperbelt’s is a riotous night at the theatre and a vital interrogation of capitalism’s ability to erode families, businesses and communities.Dahlia Katz/Supplied
Mumba’s script, meanwhile, has knots of its own: A flashback early in the play interrupts the drama from fully taking hold before it really has a chance to blossom, resulting in pacing that at times feels long-winded and a bit muddled. Passionate monologues, as well, occasionally sprout out of nowhere, powerful in the moment, but ungrounded in the dialogue that preceded them.
Even so, it’s not hard to overlook Copperbelt’s stumbles and instead commend its overall impact. At its strongest, the play is hilarious, decisive and poetic, a thrilling experiment in just how far a protagonist can be stretched before they reach their breaking point. Aquino’s cast, led by a persuasive, sensitive Mumba, features similarly strong work from Makambe K. Simamba as Eden’s sister Lombe, Rick Roberts as boyfriend Peter and Kapembwa Wanjelani (who joins the production from Zambia) as patriarch Chimfwembe.
Yes, Eden Chileshe has a secret, and no, we learn over the course of Copperbelt, she’s not doing a great job of keeping it. But Copperbelt – delicious in its second-hand cringe and fiery “Did they really just say that?” shouting matches – isn’t just about the parts of ourselves we choose to hide away. It’s about the truths embedded deep within our souls, the genealogies we’ll never quite outrun, no matter how hard we try.
There are tweaks yet to be made to Copperbelt’s script and staging, but at present, it’s a riotous night at the theatre – and a vital interrogation of capitalism’s ability to erode families, businesses and even whole communities with just a simple handshake.