Talawa Theatre Company Archives

16Oct

By Anne PritchardNo Comments

North West

Play On! – Liverpool Playhouse

This musical show transfers Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night to the 1940’s New York jazz scene and is set in the infamous Cotton Club in 1940’s Harlem. Conceived by Sheldon Epps from a book by Cheryl L. West, the production started out on Broadway where it received three Tony nominations; it has been brought to the UK by the Talawa Theatre Company. Talawa is UK’s Black theatre company, promoting Black Joy 2024, a season of theatre and workshops celebrating Black stories and artists. Directed by Talawa’s Artistic Director, Michael Buffong, the show incorporates music by legendary jazz singer, Duke Ellington and showcases classic and contemporary choreography from Kenrick H2O Sandy. It is an all-singing, all-dancing production with a five-piece live band, comprising musicians, Shane Fo...

Love Steps – Omnibus Theatre

The writer, poet and producer Anastasia Osei-Kuffour makes her playwriting debut in Love Steps: The story of Anna a young, gifted and Black girl navigating a world in turmoil searching for the one thing missing in her life, love. The set is simplistic with only shadow effects of their silhouettes, flashed up words to reflect the mood, offering no hiding place for this two person play. Anna played out by Sharon Rose set the perfect scene of her successful professional life with prose poetry and dance. She had everything a Black girl would want except in this life, devoid of a man’s love and affection, marriage and children. She would ponder, analyse control and create a checklist of the perfect man. When will happen, and how, who will it be are ...

Tales from the Front Line From Talawa Theatre Company

Talawa Theatre Company are creating an online experience featuring six brand new short pieces using verbatim interviews from Black key and frontline workers which explore the historic moment of the Covid-19 crisis and its impact on them. The pandemic has had a starkly divergent impact on communities; Black people are four times more likely to die from Covid-19, according to Public Health England’s figures in May for England and Wales. What has been learned, challenged and changed forever? What might life in the UK look like in a year’s time? Tales from the Front Line will document the contribution of Black workers at the front line of the Covid-19 crisis, creating a lasting historical record. It will explore their relationships with British society and how the pandemic has challenged th...