Giles Terera Archives - North West End UK

22May

By Khushboo ShahNo Comments

London

Passing Strange – Young Vic

If there was a list of stories that amaze and bewilder you, and make you feel a tad regretful of the decisions you made as a teenager that led you to your adult-self, Passing Strange would certainly make the cut. Originally directed by Annie Dorsen, the Tony Award-winning rock musical from Broadway makes its premiere on European soil at the Young Vic, burning the stage with electrifying music, wild performances, and a bold and quintessential coming-of-stage story. Passing Strange follows the narrative of Youth (Keenan Munn-Francis) who lives with his mother in a comfortable, laid-back, Churchish black household in LA in the seventies, where he is coaxed to attend the Church. While he fails to find God, he certainly discovers his tribe and a chance at making music, the only way he seems ...

The Meaning of Zong – Liverpool Playhouse

11May

By Donna M DayNo Comments

North West

The Meaning of Zong – Liverpool Playhouse

The Meaning of Zong, written and directed by Giles Terera, is an extraordinary reflection on slavery, its effect on society then and now, and today’s climate of performative allyship, protest and privilege, and their role in today’s racism. Incorporating music, dance and unique theatrical techniques, along with traditional stagecraft and storytelling, to create a mesmerising show which shines a light into a bleak and often sanitised history, and creates a spark of hope that, while we aren’t there yet, we are moving towards a better world. Before the play opens, some members of the cast greet audience members, with each of them looking excited and hopeful. This is followed by the onstage Musical Director, Sidiki Dembele performing a brilliant drum solo with audience participatory clappin...

18Apr

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

The Meaning of Zong – Edinburgh Lyceum

This play is only part of the story. The central character Olaudah Equiano (the leading 18th century black campaigner for the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade) is played by originator and author Giles Terera and at points we feel like we’re watching him, not Olaudah. It’s a play about struggle(s) and a quest for truth and Terera’s journey in writing and researching it involved both. As Bristol Old Vic’s artistic directors Tom Morris and Charlotte Geeves write in the programme, he ‘battled the British theatre establishment’ in order ‘to get it on its feet’. Having taken six years to develop, its debut performance was delayed from early 2020 by the Covid pandemic, so what we’re seeing tonight is almost brand new; the first performance was at the Bristol Old Vic on April 2, 2022, a ...

Giles Terera in Black Matter – Fane Online

19Mar

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Giles Terera in Black Matter – Fane Online

Black Matter is a new song cycle written and performed by Giles Terera, the Olivier award-winning star of Hamilton. It is centred on the streets of Soho, where Terera saw “people hurting each other, people helping each other” leading him to create “songs of protest, joy, anger and love”. This song cycle is both deeply personal and fiercely political, touching on friends, colleagues, the Black Lives Matter movement, growing up Black in London, the Grenfell scandal, the private and the public. These are songs which respond to the immediacy of a moment, and a summer like no other when the rush of central London is forced to stop. A gifted singer-songwriter, Terera has crafted this project for solo performance, and in the main, this is exactly that, a concert recorded at Crazy Coqs with ...

22Sep

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

A Marvellous Party – Stream Theatre

The Noel Coward foundation managed to present a transatlantic celebration of Noel Coward, filled to the brim with star-studded names from both UK and American theatre! It provided us with an evening of monologues, as well as musical numbers all interspersed with footage from the Noel Coward archives. Many great names came together to create this piece and it was refreshing to see the different takes plus having some spoken word pieces alongside songs. It was also a joy to watch Robert Lindsey and Giles Terera’s segments, as these were filmed inside theatres and provided hope that we will be back inside them soon! The evening provided a rare opportunity to see numerous faces together, perhaps for the first and only time. Personal highlights were Bebe Neuwirth and Patricia Routledge, ...