For the desperate, impoverished women of Winsome Pinnock's 1996 play, smuggling cocaine is a key to a better life. Imprisonment, or death from condom-wrapped narcotics that burst internally, are worth the risk.
In a series of brisk scenes that range from eloquently simple to clumsy, Pinnock shines a light on the dispossessed Nigerians, Jamaicans and Brits groomed, exploited and discarded by Bianca, an ex-mule who hasmoved up the food chain.
Mules is strong on character and mood but weak on plot and prone to clunking, explanatory passages to make up for it. It is therefore an ideal play for a young, thrusting talent like Amy Hodge, winner of a Jerwood/Young Vic director's prize, to show her chops.
Hodge stages the play as if in a boxing ring, making us complicit in brutalisation. If this is an obvious device, she proves herself more subtle in her handling of actors.
Martina Laird is saddled with the thankless task of playing the sleek, pragmatically emotionless, and therefore not very interesting Bianca. But Hodge draws wonderfully natural performances from Natasha Gordon and, especially, Wunmi Mosaku, as a series of women whose vivid personalities shine through their veneers of toughness or simple need.
These two switch character and accent without apparent effort. There is a lightness of touch here that offsets the darkness of the source material and underlines Pinnock's compassion.
A commendably short play ends on an ambivalent note. It's not a great work, but it did make me eager to see what Hodge, and Mosaku, do next.
Mules
Young Vic
The Cut, SE1 8LZ
