This ripening script pits a UN colonel against an African chieftain in a drama mirroring the long strife in Angola and the futility of well-intentioned mediation. John Amos, of "Good Times" fame, gets the opportunity to stretch beyond comedy and unleash the full power of his manly stage presence as General Motambi. But the spell is too often broken by Amos having to call upon an offstage prompter to read him his next line. And playwright Walter Owens gives him far too many lines to remember. We quickly get the picture: Lindstrom has the food Motambi needs for his people, but Lindstrom needs more cooperation from Motambi to complete his investigation of reported atrocities and clear the general's name.
Round and round we go until this deadlock is broken. About 15 minutes of circuitous babble could be cut from this sometimes tedious 90 minutes of dialogue -- and another five could be clipped if actors Amos and Madison Mason picked up the pace and got securely off book. Into that void, Owens needs to pour more plot. Meanwhile director Seret Scott needs to demand more variety from the players. Every time Amos invokes the 30 years of his personal struggles -- or the 500 years of Portuguese colonialism -- it's with the exact same inflection.
