Writer and performer Tania Nwachukwu’s debut play is both a celebration and a tribute to her Igbo heritage, exploring diasporic identity through music and storytelling.

The play opens with a steady drumming beat, mimicking the sound of a mother’s heartbeat in the womb, played dynamically by Francesa Amewudah-Rivers. It beckons the audience to pay attention and serves as a complimentary soundtrack to a story about mother tongues.

In the dual role of Tasha and the Storyteller, Nwachukwu straddles two worlds visually and physically, embodying the stories of the two worlds she inhabits. Nwachukwu is lively as the Storyteller, narrating the story of the Eze peoples’ special relationship to the kola nut tree – a fruit of communal significance in Igbo culture. In this folk tale, the kola nut is nourished by the stories and memories of its people; but once the young people migrate from Eze and travel to obodo oyinbo ‘white man’s country’, the tree begins to wither. The wider message and concern here is clear for diasporic communities: if you do not keep your history alive, it will die.

In London, Tasha does not only feel physically far away from her grandma who lives in Lagos, but also linguistically, as she does not fluently speak Igbo. Through becoming a ‘plant mum’, Tasha tries to connect to her matrilineal heritage through the earth. Under Ewa Dina’s confident direction, we watch Nwachukwu’s best (and entertaining) failing attempts to heal Tasha’s wilting spider plant, a wider symbol of her disconnection.

The responsibility to preserve her heritage is poetically explored by Nwachukwu as the writer: it feels ‘heavy’ on her tongue – in her own life, she has also learnt to hold her tongue, tongue-tied with anger and frustration. This sense of desperation will not feel alien to those with Igbo heritage, and like myself, will probably wish the writing would’ve continued deeper in unearthing and unpacking the knotty topics that sprout around identity and belonging rather than grazing the surface as it seems to in this production.

Georgia Wilmot’s set design is soft and intimate to match the space, and audience members are invited to whisper sounds into a loop pedal as the play draws to a close. This intimate participation reminds us it is the community rather than the individual that is integral in preserving cultural memory. By including the audience as storytellers, Nwachukwu smartly ensures that the memory of this play will linger on.