Theatre

Nigerian-born poet Inua Ellams is an undoubtedly impressive storyteller. Throughout ‘The 14th Tale’ his body is in confident, expressive motion, words cascading from his mouth, rich, funny and poetic, redolent of a fine eye for the quirks of both Nigeria and the England he has called home since his schooldays. It’s a very enjoyable hour, even if halfway through it occured to me that I was basically watching a one-man version of ‘The Wonder Years’. Ravishing as the details may be, plot-wise it’s got a very apple pie quality, being in essence a litany of harmless hijinks from Ellams’ youth, with a through thread about his father getting ill woven in to provide a measure of sentimental tension.

At a stretch its sheer amiability could be intended as a rebuttal of racial stereotypes, insofar as the recurring flash forward scenes where Ellams turns up at the hospital – a young black man in a bloody shirt – led me to assume he'd been caught up in some criminal mishap. Then again, the way it’s framed, I think you’d draw that assumption regardless of ethnicity: for starters it’s inferred that something incredibly dramatic has just happened, which it really hasn’t. Though there’s nothing wrong with just being fun when you do it this well, hopefully there will come a day when Ellams’ talents manifest themselves less cosily.

'The 14th Tale' played at the Pleasance Courtyard, 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh.