What makes a tyrant tick

It's hard work being a despot. 'There is never a break for me,' complains Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe in Fraser Grace's drama, which sees the dictator haunted by the malevolent spirit of a murdered Zanu-PF comrade.

As the play tells it, Mugabe, frightened of his own shadow, summons a shrink in the run-up to the tainted Zimbabwe elections of 2002. So an eminent white psychiatrist, Dr Peric, arrives at the state house to get inside the president's mind and appease his demons. But Peric, betraying shades of colonial arrogance, underestimates his patient.

As you might expect from a production directed by Antony Sher, much of the acting here is first-rate. Noma Dumezwemi is terrific as Mugabe's glam but terrified second wife. Joseph Mydell, his watchful bug-eyes framed by huge gold spectacles, plays down Mugabe's madness, as he sheds his conservative suit and tie to become the picture of an African dictator, his shirt emblazoned with his face.

But while Grace gives Mugabe a good line in dry humour his characters don't deepen. The play, never quite plausible enough, sags under a lot of information. It's less psychodrama and more a dutiful history lesson about the pernicious effects of white rule in Africa.

But coming 26 years after Southern Rhodesia declared independence, Grace's stock answers to what makes a tyrant tick and to why Africa is so densely populated by dictators are just not satisfying.

Until Sat, Soho Theatre And Writers Centre, 21 Dean Street W1, tonight and Fri 9pm, tomorrow and Sat 7pm, £20, £15 concs (returns only). Tel: 0870 429 6883. www.sohotheatre.com Tube: Tottenham Court Road

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