The High Table
Bush Theatre, London

The title of The High Table, a captivating debut play by Anglo-Nigerian actress Temi Wilkey, seems to have three meanings.

It literally applies to the seats of honour at a wedding, where a couple are beside their closest relatives. And, as half of the drama takes place in an afterlife, with the lovers’ ancestors commenting on developments, there is also a sense of divine perspective and judgement. However, as the engaged pair, Tara and Leah, are both women living in contemporary Nigeria, there’s also a clear sense of the traditional wedding celebration being a steep achievement for gay people there, and, by extension, elsewhere.

Down in Lagos, Leah’s parents are refusing to attend the ceremony. In a sharp joke about the relativity of tolerance, they regard themselves as enlightened Nigerians: belonging to the Yoruba tribe, they would accept their daughter marrying a man from the rival Igbo tribe, just not an Igbo woman.