Mercy Madonna of Malawi, at St George’s West, Edinburgh

You might not think that a tall, well-built African man in a peroxide wig would be the most effective of Madonna impersonators. But that’s the magic of theatre for you. Robert Magasa’s performance at the centre of Mercy Madonna of Malawi is both a good joke and an effective piece of satire, and that’s what makes it stick.

If you go along to this show expecting a rapier-sharp socio-political analysis of Madonna’s attempt to adopt the little Malawian girl called Mercy, you will be disappointed. Broad brushstrokes are the stock in trade of its producer, Toby Gough, who has an extraordinary record of coaxing crowd-pleasing shows from just about every continent and bringing them to Edinburgh.

The singing is not quite up to the kind of levels we have come to expect from big southern African ensembles, though the performance I saw was the first that the company had attempted in English after eight weeks of performing in their native Chichewa language at home. No doubt it will tighten up.
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But there is the most exuberant dancing and drumming, there is a succession of colourful costumes, and there are charismatic performances from the cast, notably Mishek Mzumara, the narrator, and Fannie Mussa, who plays Mercy, not to mention Magasa, the startling Madonna impersonator. And there is no mistaking the genuine anger that drives the show on.

The idea of rich, white people taking African children away from extended families is a bit too close for comfort for many Africans, who are still painfully aware of the history of slavery. According to the show, even Mercy’s name was an invention of the orphanage (run by a Western charity) despite her having a perfectly good African name of her own.

Apparently the courtroom sequence in which a reporter from a daily newspaper takes a microphone into the audience to ask their opinion used to take 40 minutes in Malawi, such was the strength of feeling. Edinburgh’s two-minute response may be a bit more shy, but with Scotland’s continuing strong links to the African country, the Malawians deserve to have their voices heard in the Scottish capital.