Theatre highlights this Month include Rockets And Blue Lights written by playwright Winsome Pinnock. Directed by Landé Belo. and the highly anticipated adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s Noughts & Crosses directed by Tinuke Craig.
You can also catch The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs starring Leah Harvey and Fanta Barrie.
The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs starring Leah Harvey and Fanta Barrie.
The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs, the only lesbian choir in the country, are trying to win their place on the Pride mainstage. In a run-down church hall with an OWL (Older, Wiser Lesbian) at the helm, the ragtag choir navigate love, loss, and trying to agree on song choices. But despite their best intentions, they find that harmony comes at a price.
The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs runs at Kiln Theatre from Friday 13th June – Saturday 12th July
Rockets And Blue Lights written by playwright Winsome Pinnock. Director by Landé Belo.
Tell me what you see … A contemplation of a beautiful, yet grotesque painting, thus begins this sweeping tale of interlocking timelines, exploring identity, heritage, and the haunting legacy of slavery.
It’s 2007, the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery. Hollywood ‘A Lister’, Lou, is back in England starring in a film about the transatlantic slave trade, featuring Turner’s painting, The Slave Ship. With each re-write of the script, her part is diminished, the focus shifting from the events depicted in the painting to Turner himself….. In 1840, sailor Thomas yearns for that one last voyage…but at what personal cost?
Cast includes: Tiffany Ola, Rinré Olusola, Akeem Maull-Nicol, Nvaron R. Anderson, Renford Warmington, , Nina Sprigge, Fiona Makia, Daniel Ooko and Fiyin Ifebogun.
Rockets And Blue Lights runs at Tower Theatre in Stoke Newington from Wednesday 18th – Saturday 28th June.
One Way Out by Montel Douglas
Four boys confronted by legacy, legislation, and leaving school, who will find their way out?
Is your fate already decided or is there one way out?
Best friends Devonte, Paul, Tunde, and Salim are about to finish college. As life pulls them in different directions, an earth-shattering event forces these friends to confront the harsh realities of the world around them – how they’re seen, where they belong, and who they’re expected to become. With their brotherhood hanging in the balance, they are faced with choices that could change everything
Cast Includes: Joshua-Alexander Williams and David Alade.
One Way Out runs Wednesday 18th June – Saturday 5th July at Brixton House Theatre.
Stars: An Afrofuturist Space Odyssey by Mojisola Adebayo
Meet Mrs: an old lady who goes into outer space… in search of her own orgasm. Performed by one woman and a live DJ, with projected animations, travel with a woman in search of her lost orgasm, with dustings of African mythology and folklore in an unabashedly Queer, intersex and feminist rallying play. Featuring music by Sun Ra, Jamila Woods, Floating Points, and more.
Her quest is sparked by three encounters: Maryam – a young neighbour who befriends Mrs and discloses a devastating secret; Maxi – her larger-than-life ex-colleague who reveals she has a ‘superpower’; and Shahana – a would-be lesbian lover in a launderette who offers Mrs two drops of her own pressed lavender and a smile that says, ‘I handle delicates with care’.
Stars: An Afrofuturist Space Odyssey runs at Brixton House from Thursday 5th – Saturday 28th June
This Bitter Earth by Harrison David Rivers. Directed by Billy Porter
Love. Unconditionally.
A deep love is challenged by divisive political realities.
Jesse, an introspective Black playwright, finds his choices challenged when his boyfriend, Neil, a white Black Lives Matter activist, calls him out for his political apathy.
As passions and priorities collide, this couple is forced to reckon with issues of race, class and the bravery it takes to love out loud.
Starring Omari Douglas as Jesse Howard and Stanton Plummer-Cambridge as Jesse Howard (cover).
This Bitter Earth runs at Soho Theatre from Wednesday 18th June – Saturday 26th July
The Boy with Wings based on the book by Lenny Henry. Directed by Daniel Bailey.
An ordinary kid is about to become an EXTRAORDINARY hero!
Wings? Check.
A super-cool, super-secret past? Check.
An impossible mission to save the entire galaxy. Check.
When Tunde sprouts wings and learns that his father is a ferocious alien warrior, he’s all that stands between the galaxy and total destruction - suddenly homework and school aren’t all he has to contend with.
Luckily, his rag-tag group of pals have got his back, and with his new powers, Tunde is ready to fly in the face of danger - this is his destiny. No pressure then. . .
Cast includes: Adiel Boboye, Jess Murrain, Stephan Boyce and Mia Jerome.
The Boy with Wings Runs at Polka Theatre from Saturday 2st1 June – Saturday 16th August, before transferring to Birmingham Rep from Thursday 21st – Saturday 30th August.
Girl from the North Country with music by Bob Dylan
It’s 1934 and, with life on a knife edge, the community of Duluth are battling their way through the Great Depression. Amongst the dust and the hardship, a group of wayward travellers find each other — experiencing love, loss, life and everything in between, in a local guesthouse filled with music, hope and soul.
Cast includes: Justina Kehinde, Maria Omakinwa, Sifiso Mazibuko, Frankie Hart and Daniel Bailey.
Girl from the North Country runs at the Old Vic from Tuesday 24th June – Saturday 23rd August
Liberation Written by Ntombizodwa Nyoni. Directed by Monique Touko
It’s 15 October 1945, Manchester. Africa’s freedom and future is in the hands of her descendants at the Fifth Pan-African Congress at Chorlton-on-Medlock Town Hall.
With decades of championing change under their belts, emerging African & Caribbean activists and scholars offer new radical ideas of liberation. However, the organiser, Trinidadian activist George Padmore is unsure who to pass the baton to. Kwame Nkrumah is fuelled by an idealistic desire to become the first Black president of the Gold Coast. Young, resourceful Jamaican social worker Alma La Badie is grappling with the truth behind who must be sacrificed for the cause. And what of the revered Amy Ashwood-Garvey how does she ensure the voices of Black women are heard?
Cast includes: Eric Kofi Abrefa, Leonie Elliot, Pamela Nomvete, Eamonn Walker, Rudolph Mdlongwa, Tonderai Munyevu, Tachia Newall, Joshua Roberts-Mensah, Nicola Stephenson and Bex Smith.
Liberation runs from Friday 27th June – Saturday 26th July as part of the Manchester International Festival.
Noughts & Crosses directed by Tinuke Craig.
‘All our lives criss-crossing but never really touching.
A world full of strangers living with all that fear.‘
Malorie Blackman’s best-selling Noughts & Crosses, a bittersweet love story.
By a secluded beach Callum and Sephy meet in secret; life-long friends living on separate sides of a divided world. When Callum, from a Nought family, is accepted to Sephy’s prestigious Cross school, will it bring them closer, or will the hate and fear that surrounds them drive them apart?
Cast includes: Corinna Brown, Amanda Bright, Halle Brown, Eddie Elliot, Jessica Layde, Wela Mbusi, Habib Nasib Nader, Yolanda Ovide and Helena Pipe.
Noughts & Crosses runs at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre from 28th June – 26th July
ECHO with Daniel Kaluuya and Lolly Adefope.
The production sees a different performer take to the stage for each show – with no rehearsal and no idea what’s going to happen next. Adventuring across time and space, guided by Nassim from his flat in Berlin, performer and audience embark on a global journey of belonging, connection, and the meaning of home.
Daniel Kaluuya will perform at 6.30pm on 28th June and Lolly Adefope will perform on 2nd July, with a final guest performer to be announced.
ECHO runs at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs from Friday 27th June – Saturday 5th July
Beneath The Family Tree by Emmanuel Akwafo & Emma Bakare. Directed by Prime Isaac
Whispers. Secrets. Shadows. Something dark stirs this summer in one of the most haunting, head-turning new plays to hit the London stage.
It starts with a death anniversary.
It ends with a question: Grief has a smell…..Memory has a weight…..And some secrets should’ve stayed buried.
Set inside a family home that seems to breathe with its own dark intent, Beneath the Family Tree spirals from taut family drama into something truly sinister. When Kwame, Esther, and Ama return to their childhood home to honour the anniversary of their mother’s passing, grief quickly curdles into suspicion. The walls whisper. The past doesn’t line up. And unspoken traumas claw their way into the light.
Starring the best of London new talent Christie Fewry as Esther, Paul Chinkwende as Kwame and Esther Armah As Ama.
Beneath The Family Tree runs at Riverside Studios from Monday 30th June 30 – Saturday 5th July
Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage. Directed by Lynette Linton.
“Do you think there’s something wrong with a woman alone?”
New York, 1905. Esther, who sews exquisite lingerie for women from all walks of life, successful and fiercely independent, she dreams of opening her own beauty salon, but can’t shake the longing to fall in love. When she begins to receive beautiful letters from a lonesome stranger, it looks like it could just be her ticket to happiness. Starring Samira Wiley, Nicola Hughes, Kadiff Kirwan and Faith Omole.
Intimate Apparel runs at Donmar Warehouse from Friday 20th June – Saturday 9th August