THE award-winning Omnibus Theatre in London, under the dynamic artistic direction of Marie McCarthy, describes itself as “a home of storytelling — a small place to encounter big ideas.”

And in the current climate of shock and stillness, that need for storytelling could never be more urgent.

One such story is that of Samuel Adjei in Jacob Roberts-Mensah and Rhys Reed-Johnson’s Dem Times, directed by Poppy Clifford, bow available on a podcast.

British-born Samuel has gone and got himself expelled from school.

At their wits’ end, his parents decide to send him off to their homeland Ghana to revisit his ancestral culture and learn some discipline.

A major upheaval, it’s exacerbated when Samuel learns that it’s a boarding school he’ll join, and one in which the working day starts before sunrise and ends after 9pm.  

At first you could make the mistake of thinking the piece is aimed only at young adults — secondary school kids probably from an ethnic minority and possibly specifically Ghanaian.

The audience we hear on the podcast certainly confirm this assumption as they roar with recognition and laugh at the most basic of observations.

But this play goes beyond its natural audience. David Omordia, in the central role of Samuel, is thoroughly engaging from the outset.

We all love a bad boy who captures our hearts and we can identify easily with his fragile attempts to prosper in a hostile world.

Yet, at the same time, the play gifts us an insight into the teenage experience, where comparative powerlessness, the need for cultural identity and a personal sense of fleeting ineptitude sits uneasily with the genuine struggle to achieve  a bearable future.  

We see that the learning curve of phenomenal proportions experienced by the young is rocked constantly by a deluge of righteous craziness heaped on it by their elders and betters and by the world at large.

This is fruitful territory for comedy but it’s also a play for any adult who want to understand — or be reminded of — the workings of the late-teenage mind.

And it will strike many chords for those who recognise the contagious power of culture and the conflicted and divided loyalty experienced by so many second-generation settlers in Britain.

Short and sharp, the podcast is beautifully performed. Energetic, light-hearted, truthful and fun it has a powerful Ghanaian atmosphere. Good story, Omnibus.

Podcast: omnibus-clapham.org/oto-dem-times.