'Wolves on Road' review — two fast-talking friends risk it all in this energetic premiere about the lure of cryptocurrency

Read our review of new drama Wolves on Road, written and directed by Beru Tessema, now in performances at the Bush Theatre to 21 December.

Cryptocurrency is a comparatively new theatrical topic given the readiness of the theatre to embrace such concurrent phenomena as AI (McNeal on Broadway) and countless talking points on the political and economic spectrum.

But that highly particular world fuels Wolves on Road – a definite article presumably got lost in the transaction. The follow-up Bush Theatre premiere from Ethiopian-British writer-director Beru Tessema following his 2022 entry House of Ife, the play fizzes with energy in its opening passages, though, ultimately, says comparatively little about this hot topic.

That’s not to deny the validity of the experience. There’s hardly a more exciting new writing venue in town than west London's Bush, as has been evidenced by the rise and rise of the playhouse that gave us the hit solo shows Baby Reindeer and Elephant . Their production of Shifters recently concluded a triumphant commercial transfer, and artistic director Lynette Linton (whose Barcelona is now running in the West End) tops anyone’s list of fast-rising British talent.

Excitement this time out arrives in the second act with the appearance of Jamael Westman, the wonderful original West End star of Hamilton here cast as a crypto-king called Devlin, who appears directly following the interval to deliver the equivalent of a TED talk. The role requires someone possessed of an immediate authority, and Westman is passing the part on after several weeks so others can have a go at this high-profile theatrical cameo.

Devlin talks about the salutary effects of this financial way of being, and its fairness amidst the “structural racism” that otherwise makes it prohibitively expensive for expats to send money home to Africa. Thank heavens, then, for the (fictional) DGX Global, which will free up the process – “free” being the operative word.

The bulk of the play belongs not to this overlord but, instead, to two fast-talking, feisty young men who would be at home in the lively, lippy world of Red Pitch, the breakout Bush Theatre hit directed by Daniel Bailey, who has assumed the same role here. East Londoners who exist in the shadow of Canary Wharf, the boys have a proximity to the world of money at its most extravagant.

Batting language back and forth as if engaged in linguistic volleyball, the 21-year-old Manny (Kieran Taylor-Ford) and Abdul (Hassan Najib) face their own reckoning with this so-called “new religion”. Best friends and both mixed-race, they exist on a collision course as events spiral out of control.

Their love of the prospect of lucre exists in contrast to the burgeoning romance between Fevan (Alma Eno), Manny’s mum, who is a chef, and Markos (Ery Nzaramba), an Ethiopian immigrant and bus driver who succumbs to the “glazed look” that comes with financial overconfidence.

Decisions carry devastating consequences en route to the gently moralistic reminder near the end that people too often in life “major in minor things” – or place undue hopes in high-flown schemes that can in turn hollow out relationships with a sudden shift in fortune.

Some of the acting hasn’t yet found its groove, and one can imagine the production gaining in confidence across the run. But both Najib and Taylor-Ford are immediately likeable, engaging presences for whom one wishes only the best, amidst a competitive, take-no-prisoners climate that exists just one “bruv” away from a cataclysmic crash.

Wolves on Road is at the Bush Theatre to 21 December. Book Wolves on Road tickets on London Theatre.

Photo credit: Wolves on Road (Photos by Helen Murray)