Cake and Congo review, Theatre 503 at the Latchemere

There is a well ventilated argument for discouraging young women from lap dancing. It is an entree to the sex industry in the same way cigarettes are a gateway to more serious drugs. While many resist the urge to keep upping the ante, each stage requires only a small adjustment.  In a dark booth below London even now, a girl is shrugging and saying 'why not'? If he's paying to have my twat in his face, why not charge him to use it?  You get the drift.

Lap chancer

In Cake and Congo, it is teenage dancer, Amba, who argues in favour of the lap dancing career move. Sidestepping issues around university and professional dancing, she shacks up with her daffy mate, Kelly, and starts striking a pose. Soon her life is late nights and lost days. Meanwhile, back home on the estate, her Aunt Leonie is deliberately turning a blind eye to how her new nicknacks were funded.  She tells the nice white lady from the Women's Centre that compared to the Congo where rebels murder all the men and rape all the women, lapdancing is nothing. 

Is Laura McClusky's play about to challenge western norms and argue that exploitation has different functions in different settings?  If you hail from an African culture steeped in civil strife and where people are exploited, expelled or extinguished every day, is it an exploitation of self to sell sex, or a canny means of survival? Having raised an interesting and controversial point, McClusky returns to well worn arguments, linking Amba to western narratives around the sex industry by revealing the girl was abused as a child by an unknown, unnamed man. It's an easier option.

In conclusion: Cake and Congo has charming moments. Akiya Henry is both sweet and sad as Amba. She's a great dancer. Her costars suffer from underdeveloped dialogue which is stilted and too proselytising. There are holes in the story. It needs a dramaturg to move it from promising to rewarding. Featuring Jade Williams, Amy Newton and Faith Edwards. 

References

Tickets, Theatre 503

Theatre 503, The Latchmere Pub, 503 Battersea Park Road, London SW11 3BW.  Run ends 14 September