Writer and Director: Ibi Kontein

Playing as part of Peckham Fringe, this bijou show (less than 45 minutes) simply explores the job application process in Nigeria and demonstrates how difficult it is.

Ja-ja (Patrick Popolampo) has worked for seven years to achieve a first-class honours degree and to qualify as a Chartered Accountant. Now he would, naturally, like a job commensurate with his qualifications. The play shows him in a series of interview situations that highlight the level of abuse and corruption which someone in Ja-ja’s position has to face. One selector asks him to sweep the floor, and another sends him to fetch the interviewer’s workbag. He is asked several times to pay a “fee” in return for a job and, in one case, propositioned for sex in lieu. Presumably, these are all examples the writer has researched from applicant experiences.

The acting is patchy, although there is some adept multi-roling, especially from Joy “Tutu” Torru and Funbu Sokoya. The latter is both strong and mildly funny as a terrifying tribal chief running a company. Popolampo makes Ja-ja so handwringingly humble – between bouts of short-lived assertiveness – that few people, even without the corruption, would employ a man quite so drippy. It is not clear whether this is deliberate.

A fair amount of work has clearly gone into making the Nigerian accents plausibly strong. At times, however, they are too broad for a mixed London audience and words quite often get lost along with meaning.

The show is staged in Theatre Peckham’s studio theatre with some attempt to involve the audience by addressing them as if they were interviewees or seminar attenders, with Popolampo seated in the front row.

Reviewed on 25 May 2025

Star rating 2

This review was first published by The Reviews Hub  https://www.thereviewshub.com/dear-applicant-theatre-peckham-london/