Review Roundup: WOLVES ON ROAD at Bush Theatre

Bush Theatre is presenting the world premiere of Wolves On Road, a fast, funny, and furious new play from Beru Tessema, directed by Bush Theatre’s Associate Artistic Director, Daniel Bailey.

Manny dreams of being a big dog - but right now he’s hocking fake designer goods, living with his mum, and dealing with her new boyfriend. The glittery skyscrapers of Canary Wharf he sees out the window every day have never seemed so far.

But when his best friend offers him a way to make money faster than he could ever imagine, he pulls his whole family into a world that’s almost too good to be true.

Wolves on Road is a thrilling deep-dive into the mysterious world of crypto-currency, revealing how ambition and hope can be exploited, no matter the system at play. See what the critics are saying...

Ryan Gilbey , The Guardian: By the end, any losses have come out in the wash. No one on stage has been seriously changed or challenged, and nor have we. As morals go, “You win some, you lose some” feels like a poor return on an audience’s investment.

Andrzej Lukowski, TimeOut: What Daniel Bailey’s production captures really well is the energy, enthusiasm and underlying societal disaffection of the two puppyish young leads – after directing West End transfer smash Red Pitch, Bailey feels like the absolute go to guy for depicting young Black male camaraderie on stage. Tessema’s dialogue fizzes and pops a treat, but he’s as good at portraying Manny’s flaws as his charm. However, it’s lacking in incisiveness on its subject – ultimately cryptocurrency and its 2021 crash feels more like the backdrop to a story about two pals than what the play is actually about.

Rachel Halliburton, The Times: On Amelia Jane Hankin’s compact set, in which blocks are shifted around to evoke different settings — perhaps a visual reference to blockchain — we watch as the lure of DGX exposes the vulnerability in each character. Savagely humorous, the play doesn’t judge — instead it makes us ask what might force any of us to engage with this turbo-charged wheel of fortune.

Nick Curtis, Evening Standard: Tessema’s first produced play, House of Ife, also at the Bush, was a close family drama also set among the Ethiopian diaspora in Britain. Its plot was wayward while its characters and their melting-pot London argot felt blisteringly authentic. Here, Tessema has clearly set out to understand the arcane world of cryptocurrency and you can feel his research sitting in the play like silt, weighing down his sparky dialogue.

Daz Gale , All That Dazzles : There is much to admire about Wolves On Road with its content every bit as ambitious as its protagonists. When it’s at its best, it shows signs of brilliance but sadly struggles to maintain that level and suffers from a dip as the narrative and messages threatens to plummet. It never falls to a disastrous level, however, and still manages to be an enjoyable play - I just got the sense that with a bit of fine-tuning, it could reach even higher heights. Perhaps not one of the strongest shows to be seen in that theatre this year but further proof of how versatile, exciting and full of potential their programming always is.

Chris Omaweng, LondonTheatre1: It’s not clear, at least not to me, whether this is meant to be a play about crypto (every single character has a reason to express strong emotions and opinions on it at some point or other) more than it is meant to be about family dynamics and cross-cultural clashes. The active role of the Church in Manny’s community, and therefore in this story, is interesting to note in an era of declining religious adherence. Perhaps the good book has a point when it talks about nobody being able to serve two masters at once. A strong cast but a sprawling narrative make for a mixed bag of comedy and confrontation.