REVIEW: Before heading to Soulpepper, Copperbelt strikes gold at the NAC

Copperbelt’s patriarch Chimfwembe says it best: “You don’t build for a generation, but for generations to come.” 

The show itself began building long before it hit the stage: This ambitious debut play by Dora Award-nominated actor Natasha Mumba is impressive in scale as well as accomplishment. The drama’s world premiere is co-produced by Soulpepper Theatre and the National Arts Centre’s English Theatre, and is directed by the latter company’s artistic director Nina Lee Aquino. It was previously workshopped nationally and in Lusaka, Zambia — resulting in the casting of Zambian actors Kapembwa Wanjelani and Kondwani Elliott Zulu. 

The play follows Eden (playwright Mumba), a junior operations manager at a mining firm based in Toronto. When her estranged father has a heart attack, Eden takes a leave from her job and returns home to her tumultuous family in Zambia. As the expectations of her corporate job — and of Peter (Rick Roberts), her older, white, newly divorced boss and boyfriend — collide with her wealthy family’s interests in a valuable local copper mine, Eden finds herself stuck in the middle.

Copperbelt begins, quite literally, trapped in a corner. Clustered around the playing space’s downstage-left corner, tall walls and a kitchen island sparsely represent Eden and Peter’s Toronto home. The rest of the stage is empty: during initial scenes in Zambia, Eden’s father Chimfwembe (Wanjelani) and her brother-in-law Dalitso (Zulu) float in a spotlight on the middle-right of the stage (lighting design by Michelle Ramsay). It’s only once Eden crosses the Atlantic — and to the right side of the stage, as if moving east — that additional set pieces appear. Rachel Forbes’ set extends outward to meet her, scenographically echoing Chimfwembe’s reminder to Eden: “You are tethered to this land. More than you know.” 

Forbes’ design plays generously with shape, including lattices and arches in earthy shades of brown, such as clay and, of course, copper. Once aligned, the pieces of the family house in Zambia fit together like a puzzle, just as the pieces of tight-lipped Eden’s life fall into place for both Peter and the audience — and, in more than one shocking reveal, for Eden herself. 

This attention to both colour and texture expands the initial lone set into a cohesive world. The shiny tarnished-copper finish of one Toronto wall is industrial and unwelcoming compared to the richer matte tones of the house in Zambia, but when viewed together, the set pieces produce one fluid space. The costumes, also designed by Forbes, demonstrate a similar attention to detail: Eden’s signature mauve appears throughout the play on her mother’s shoes and her father’s pyjamas, producing a visual connection even when the characters aren’t on the same continent.

Mumba’s script deftly balances family drama with a depiction of international commodities trading. The tension between these two spheres of Eden’s world drives the plot and allows the exceptional cast to shine in multiple registers, from discussing mining license logistics to hashing out long-held grudges at the dinner table. There are no small parts in Copperbelt’s small ensemble. Perhaps thanks to Mumba’s significant experience as an actor, the script is not just a treat for the audience, but a real gift to each performer, granting each character (and brilliant actor) their moment in the sun. Mumba is grounded and agile in her negotiation of Eden’s many complicated relationships; as Eden’s charismatic brother Musolo, Eric Miracle energizes the stage and his scene partners; and Zulu, as brother-in-law Dalitso, beautifully communicates Dalitso’s complex relationship with his wealthier in-laws.

Aquino’s production smoothly rises to the script’s technical challenges. Several flashbacks to earlier in Eden and Peter’s relationship are quite literally flashed back, with the purple-and-blue lighting of the bar where they first met serving to unobtrusively signal each jump. Aquino’s production features low-light movement sequences in transitional moments big and small, from the flight to Zambia to the movement of furniture (movement direction by Tawiah Ben M’Carthy).

Copperbelt ultimately revolves around a question Peter poses to Eden early in the play: “So it doesn’t matter how you feel? It doesn’t matter what you want?” It should — it does — but as the plot unspools, what Eden wants, personally and professionally, becomes more and more complicated. The play successfully navigates generations of personal and international histories and expectations, including an unflinching examination, through nice-guy Peter, of Canada’s own role in resource extraction in developing countries. Copperbelt heads to Toronto next month, and I’m sure it will continue to go places.

Copperbelt runs at the National Arts Centre until January 24. More information is available here. From February 7 to March 1, it will then run at Soulpepper.

Intermission reviews are independent and unrelated to Intermission’s partnered content. Learn more about Intermission’s partnership model here.

WRITTEN BY

Madeleine Vigneron

Madeleine Vigneron (she/her) is a graduate student in English Literature at Carleton University. She is an editor at Augur Magazine. Her writing has been published in khōréō, Quilt, The Undergraduate Review, Collective Reflections, writing in the gallery, and performed by the Dan Studio Series. Madeleine is based in Ottawa, Ontario.

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