They say water has the power to heal. So, in Siana Bangura’s new play, three west African women dealing with grief and change turn up to their local pool in Coventry for weekly swimming classes. Ama has convinced her two friends from church, Blessing and Fatu, to “think about what’s good” for their bodies and give lessons a go. What she hasn’t told them is that she’s signed them up to take part in a group open-water relay race.
This production, directed by Madeleine Kludje, follows the women through their learning process, but it runs at the pace of a slowly flowing stream. Scene changes are swollen out, unnecessarily; there are segments that could be deleted en masse. The swimming instructor Danny is affectionately played by Sam Baker-Jones with a thick Brummie accent, but he feels like half a character, his story unfinished.
