STARS: An Afrofuturist Space Odyssey – Brixton House

STARS: An Afrofuturist Space Odyssey fulfils and surpasses every inch of its title. It’s the odyssey of one woman’s life on Earth and her need to go beyond, and encompasses everything from Monday mornings at the laundrette to primordial, ancestral spirits from the stars. It is asintimate as sex and as enormous as the cosmos. It made me feel seen, uplifted and part of something bigger than myself, and I cannot recommend it enough.

When her husband dies, Mrs (Debra Michaels) decides to take matters into her own hands and have her first orgasm. She’s not sure where to start, but space travel seems as good a place as any. Woven into the first half of the play is the story of the Nommo, an ancient hermaphroditic people from a star called Sirius B, beautifully illustrated by Candice Purwin. Mrs’ connection with this story is a poignant demonstration of the power of folklore and oral history – the Nommo passed down knowledge of the invisible Sirius B to their followers, the Dogon, many years before the star was ‘found’ by European scholars in 1970. In Mrs’ world, she learns that the answers to her own problems may lie in the very place the Nommo came from: outer space.

Each strand of the story is seamlessly linked between a deep, primordial past and a completely grounded and relatable now. As much as Mrs learns about the Nommo, she’s equally (if not more) invested in Star Trek. The fate of the Nommo is deeply linked with the only people Mrs can confide in: a child called Maryam, and a friend, Maxi. Just as the Nommo were feared on Earth for their defiance of binaries, between man-woman, fish-human, as are Maxi and Maryam reproached for their very existence: their gender and sexuality. Maryam, a young girl, has undergone FGM over the summer and burns like the Sun every time she needs the loo. Maxi is intersex, with a super-clitoris – threatened with the scalpel upon her birth, but protected from it (and Dr Money) by her mother. The show’s tracing of gender-nonconforming people to the beginning of time deepens Mrs’ journey with her own sexuality, and its description of ‘gendercide’ is resonant with a 2025 audience.

At its heart, the show is about one woman’s orgasm as much as it is about all of time and space. The climax is exactly that – a joyous coming together of everything Mrs has learnt in her life, a lift-off into the heavens, and one hell of an orgasm. It is an explosive representation of the simultaneous nature of the micro and the macro, and caused one of the most joyful reactions in a room I’ve ever experienced.

Adebayo’s writing is sharp, funny and tight throughout. It’s dense, packing in a life-time’s worth of lesbianism, a schooling in African mythology and folklore and three women’s trauma in just 80 minutes. Mrs herself is delightfully honest. She is weathered yet optimistic, battered yet liberated. She’s a wonderfully relatable character, perfectly crafted and portrayed by Michaels, who delivers every line with delicious assuredness. There are a lot of moving parts: a live DJ that never stops, live illustrated animation, captioning, lights, a spinning fridge, narration… and it all layers to create something quite harmonious. It’s an impressive realisation of an ambitious creative vision, and is exciting to see in the flesh.

STARS is a symphony under Adebayo’s baton, a reminder of who we are and our place in the universe, and a rallying cry to all those who have been flattened by the narrow-mindedness of the Earth. It is a holy communion in Brixton House. Urgent viewing for all.

Playing until 28th June, https://brixtonhouse.co.uk/shows/stars/

Reviewer: Holly Sewell

Reviewed: 9th June 2025

North West End UK Rating: