GBOLAHAN OBISESAN'S adaptation of Chigozie Obiome’s profoundly moving debut novel —shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize — played to packed audiences at last year’s Edinburgh Festival and this London transfer eloquently confirms why it garnered the plaudits.

This elegiac story of almost mythical significance is told through the tragedy of one family ripped apart by fate and a father’s hubris.

Benjamin, the youngest of four brothers, recalls childhood events when the boys deserted school to fish in a forbidden river, where they encountered a local madman. His prophetic curse in response to the taunts of the oldest of the siblings then plays out with a fated inevitability in a two-man production that runs at just over an hour.