Bola Agbaje’s Gone Too Far hits the stage for the first time since becoming a GCSE set text. It tells the tale of Streetwise Yemi (Jerome Scott) a teen who is joined in England by his older brother Ikudayisi (Dalumuzi Moyo) who was raised in Nigeria. Yemi is not happy about his brother’s arrival in the UK and is even less happy that he is always speaking Yoruba. The brothers pop out to the shop on their first day of the meeting and get tangled up in the street politics of Peckham.
“a huge Afridiziak Shout outs goes out to Armani (Keziah Campbell-Golding) who played her annoying role so well I actually wanted to strangle her – now THAT’S a good actress”!
In just a few hours they discover how much of a culture clash there is between them and how different they are – Yemi just wants to fit in and keep up his rep and is not interested in his family culture and heritage at all, while Iku is a proud and friendly Nigerian. What starts as a short trip to the shops to buy milk quickly escalates into a confrontation with the police and a deadly battle over respect.
The cast from the National Youth Theatre is vibrant and bursting with raw talent. There are plenty of laughs in between some powerful and emotional scenes as they navigate the diasporic streets of Peckham. The cast was all very good and convincing (Thise Coppers tho’!) but for me, a huge Afridiziak Shout outs go out to Armani (Keziah Campbell-Golding) who played her annoying role so well I actually wanted to strangle her – now THAT’S a good actress!
