Tambo & Bones by Dave Harris – ★★★★★

Returning for a limited time to Stratford East during its UK 2025 national tour, Tambo & Bones is a provocative satire on the history of race, performance, and capitalism. 

For those that may not know — the title Tambo & Bones references archetypal characters from 19th-century American Minstrel shows, a form of theatrical entertainment where racist caricatures of Black Americans were performed by white performers in blackface for comedic effect to white audiences. Their names directly relate to the instruments they played. Tambo played the tambourine, and Bones played the "bones" (percussion). Minstrel shows remained popular until the early 20th century and ironically became a complicated pathway for Black performers into paid theatrical work.

A Quarter For A Dollar, A Dollar For A Dream…

Set against a fabricated backdrop of a poorly painted cardboard sun and blue skies, set and costume designers Sadeysa Greenaway-Bailey and ULT immediately establish the play’s acute awareness of its own constructed reality and how challenging it is to feel real and be free in a world where you’re always being watched and expected to perform. When Tambo and Bones realize they’re trapped in a minstrel show they never chose to be a part of, their desperation to fund their dreams of freedom drives them to plot a high-stakes escape: get rich or die trying. 

Clifford Samuel as Tambo and Daniel Ward as Bones deliver outstanding performances requiring a great range of skills. They are Black men embodying a double consciousness of playing white men who are playing Black men. While acknowledging how incredibly challenging, exhausting, and detrimental that kind of performative existence is, their playful chemistry allows them to transition seamlessly from moments of uproarious Vaudeville comedy to horror and profound poignancy.

The play unfolds across three acts, each excavating a distinct period in the United States of America’s history: an oppressive past, a complicated present, and a forewarned future. Adding to its genre-bending approach, there’s a whole rap concert in the middle of the show. I’m talking gold chains, diamond-studded grillz, strobe lights, t-shirt cannons, and “making it rain” on stage.

West Philly poet and playwright Dave Harris's brilliant script for Tambo & Bones isn't afraid to shatter the fourth wall and rip himself apart to examine his own authorial power as the writer. In the second act, he masterfully uses the inherent musicality of Tambo and Bones’ archetypes to transcend their minstrel origins into rising hip-hop icons. Speaking to the authenticity and lyrical finesse of this play, Harris describes its style as “not Hamilton rap, but actual rap” and to be honest, I wouldn’t be mad if Lin-Manuel Miranda took that as an invitation to squabble!

Well-known London DJ and respected director Matthew Xia created the hip-hop beats for this production and an immersive experience that’s impossible to sit idly through without being moved by the rhythm. The collective call and response of the concert is spiritual, as audience members are moved to call out and finish verses of the hip-hop references we know. You might even be asked to hop on the mic... The cipher between Tambo and Bones demonstrates their contrasting ideologies. Tambo, the morally urgent lyricist aiming to deconstruct systemic racism and change the world, and Bones, who seeks to keep the energy light, the audience entertained, and the money flowing. But at what cost do Tambo and Bones become wise to the games America plays to gain social capital, creative license, and financial freedom?

Society’s ill/ i'm resting on sobriety’s will

Tryna dodge America/ because they eyin to kill

Im eyin to fill/ whatever makes my heart feel free

Once I thought it was need/ but is it all just greed?

This exceptional production reaches its zenith in the third act, where Khloe Dean’s movement direction is a revelatory masterclass in physical storytelling. 400 years into the future, Samuel and Ward, now at podiums in a fully lit theatre, deliver an oral history of how Tambo and Bones turned the coin on its head and changed the face of the U.S.A. Through gravity-defying choreography, Tambo and Bones’ Black legacy is reenacted by white futuristic robots. Incredible talents Jaren Lammens and Dru Kripps pop-lock and mimic a chilling portrayal of Tambo and Bones’ plight, painting an urgent vision of a future America grappling with its fractured identity. 

With a poignant nod to the evolution of AI and a striking return to reality, the play reaches an emotional peak. Ward loses the will to continue to tell the story, unable to continue the act, he leaves the audience to contemplate the cyclical effect of systemic racism and how sinister power structures integrated in society by capitalism rob us all of our humanity. 

For the master's tool will never dismantle the master's house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. ~ Audre Lorde

Tambo & Bones exceeded my expectations and amazed me to the point of audible excitement and continuous awe. It boldly steps outside the confines of traditional theatre to create an impactful experience and an intentional space for profound communication and collective reflection.

★★★★★

By Kennedy J.L. Jopson.

Tambo & Bones is showing at Stratford East until 10 May.