Although there are  international regulations with severe penalties about the export and import of ivory, Lynn Nottage’s play shows how greed and corruption bypass and make a mockery of these rules.  Wamwara Machau  (Nate Jones) the Regional Warden of the Kenyan National Park feels the shame at having let Mlima die in his care but he too is bought off.  

It is amazing that a cast of just five play numerous parts, spanning continents on the journey taken by the tusks.  Lynne Nottage’s writing has given voice to the elephant in an opening and closing monologue but the after death presence of the great tusker is conveyed by movement so that we feel his pain.   Each person who touches the elephant or the tusks is daubed by white paint from the elephant’s fore limb marking their guilt. 

Nottage’s  descriptive writing is outstanding. She describes ivory like this, “It is the gold of the uncouth and the wealthy”.  The powerful metaphor for the killing of a magnificent species of our natural world is, “A man’s greed is like a snake that wants to swallow an elephant.”  

The subject of wildlife is often neglected by new drama. Do not miss this important play!