INUA Ellams has an extraordinary gift for telling spellbinding stories and his latest play is no exception.

The half god of its title is Nigerian basketball prodigy and rainmaker-at-will Demi, whose father is Greek god Zeus and whose mother is Modupe, a mortal Nigerian woman who conceived Demi when the former raped her.

In this fantastical world, half gods are not supposed to play basketball and, by forging a successful career as point guard for the Golden State Warriors, Demi has angered the deities. Refusing to accept their strictures, Demi confronts his father and the fallout is world-changing.  

Brilliantly blending the conflict between gods and mortals in a narrative both heartbreaking and fantastically funny, Ellam’s rhythmic poetic language powerfully transports us through the story and, in what’s a call for action, the politics of race and rape underpinning it.

Rakie Ayola and Kwami Odoom are phenomenal in a huge range of roles, with the latter charismatic and engaging as Demi, but it is Rakie Ayola who’s the heart and soul of the production. In a mesmeric and precise performance, she moves from gut-wrenching descriptions of rape to humorous depictions of the gods in the blink of an eye.

Towards the conclusion, Modupe asks what exactly is the ruling order that teaches males to take what isn’t given and her anger and vengeance are highly charged theatrical moments.

In them, Ellams offers a politics more radical than anything advanced in the usual conversations about rape and colonialism.

Runs until May 17, box office: kilntheatre.com