NIGERIA, 1922

Mister Johnson is a young Nigerian clerk in the British Colonial Service. He is warm-hearted, eager, and totally irresponsible. He loves parties, singing, dancing, and his beautiful new wife, Bamu. But, most of all, he loves the King of England, and all things British.

Pursued by creditors and greedy in-laws, Johnson tries - with the aid of creative book-keeping - to help his superior officer, Rudbeck, complete the building of a new road, which will bring "civilisation" to his village. But, when Johnson helps himself, things go disastrously wrong.

Gloriously funny, sad and wise, the play contrasts the richness of West African life with the sterile formality of English bureaucracy.

Exuberant, full of African music and dance, the production welcomes many of the cast of Independent Theatre's landmark production of Cry, the Beloved Country, headed by SHEDRICK YARKPAI (Free Man of Colour) as the irrepressible, irresistible Mister Johnson.

AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE