What To Watch: On Stage Feb 2023
February is right around the corner and we have a great list of shows to watch during the month. Remember to check out our last post here too as some shows are still on such as WATCH ON THE RHINE @ Donmar Warehouse and Mandela @ Young Vic. If you found this useful, please do send a tip so we can continue to connect audiences.
Sleepova @ Bush Theatre
Dates: 24 Feb - 08 Apr 2023
About: Join Rey, Elle, Shan, and Funmi. Armed with sugary snacks, school gossip, and secret questions they can only ask each other, their sleepovas are pretty much a sacred space for them
As each year tugs them further into adulthood and life doesn’t pan out quite as they imagined, they struggle to hold on to a friendship that they swore would last a lifetime. Sleepova is an ode to black women, their boundless spirits, and wild dreams. A new Bush Theatre commission from Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini (Little Miss Burden), directed by Jade Lewis (Quarter Life Crisis, Bridge Theatre).
Hummingbird @ Blue Elephant Theatre
Dates: 23 - 25 Feb 2023
About: Hummingbird is a thought-provoking and poignant new play, exploring the ways in which belonging is found in unfamiliar homes. Hummingbird touches on the complexity of British identity and the way migrant communities find a place within them.
Chicken Burger N Chips @ Brixton House Theatre
Dates: 31 Jan - 11 Feb 2023
About: A raw and nostalgic coming-of-age story about growing up in South London. Directed by Almeida Theatre Resident Director T.D Moyo, Corey Bovell’s fast-paced, witty play tells a story about gentrification and the impact it’s having on the lives of its youths.
I Am Not Black @ Barons Court Theatre
Dates: 31 Jan - 04 Feb 2023
About: Temz Thomas has been asked to give a speech at his old school about how his time there shaped him into the man he is today.
While searching his old bedroom for his Blackberry from when he was in school Temz goes on a nostalgic trip down memory lane.
Pocomania @ Theatre Peckham
Dates: 31 Jan – 5 Feb 2023
About: Pocomania is a testament to the sweeping process of social change taking place across the Caribbean in a post-emancipation context. A newly emerging Jamaican middle class comprehends its national identity against colonial class structures. Religious traditions rooted in Africa are represented by the colonial system as barriers to a civilised society.
Waiting for a Train at the Bus Stop @ The Vault
Dates: 29 Jan - 05 Feb 2023
About: Chilufya – you can call her Chili – doesn’t know whether she is coming or going. Which makes perfect sense since her name literally means ‘the lost one’ and lost is exactly how she’s felt most of her life. Her low self-esteem and high insecurities lead her into the arms of Paul, whose increasingly dangerous control over her life drives a decline in her already fragile mental health. Paul’s influence on Chili’s life soon becomes so far-reaching, she loses herself completely. Intertwining spoken word poetry with Zambian oral storytelling traditions, this work-in-progress show is a dark comedy about how to find a way back to yourself when you are feeling lost.
The High Life @ Barons Court Theatre
Dates: 14 - 18 Feb 2023
About: The High Life is a one-woman play about Kayla, a twenty-something black woman who is desperate to get out of her service industry job, and therefore enters the PR industry. It is a funny, vibrant, truthful piece about the lure and danger of toxic work environments, full of personal revelations, clandestine romance and some home truths that hit a modern audience hard.
Bootycandy @ Gate Theatre
Dates: 13 Feb - 11 Mar 2023
About: The UK premiere of Robert O’Hara's Bootycandy is a semi-autobiographical, kaleidoscopic, Black queer fever dream of connected vignettes, directed by Gate Theatre Associate Artist Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu (For Black Boys…)
Exploring childhood, sexuality, fantasy and reality, Bootycandy licks the raw, encrusted parts of us that make us who we are and questions how we can even begin to honour them.
Sunny Side Up @ Theatre Peckham
Dates: 14 Feb – 5 Mar 2023
About: Based on a true story, Sunny Side Up is a coming-of-age tale that delves into the mind of Lil D, poetically exploring upbringing, environment and life events, and how this shapes the masculinity of young Black boys.
My Brother’s Keeper @ Theatre 503
Dates: 14 Feb - 04 Mar 2023
About: Two refugee brothers. A small British town hostile to immigration. My Brother’s Keeper charts a story of love, pain and learning in building community.
Sylvia @ The Old Vic
Dates: 27 Jan - 01 Apr 2023
About: This revolutionary story celebrates the life of Sylvia Pankhurst – feminist, activist, pacifist, socialist, rebel – the lesser-known Pankhurst at the heart of the Suffragette movement, who changed the lives of working women and men across the world.
Unexpected Twist @ Royal & Derngate
Dates: 11 - 25 Feb 2023
About: Unexpected Twist is a re-telling of the Charles Dickens classic, Oliver Twist, by one of the best-loved figures in the children’s book world, Michael Rosen.
Combining two stories in one; Rosen’s new tale alongside the Dickens classic that inspired it, Artistic Director James Dacre (Olivier Award-nominated Our Lady Of Kibeho) and designer Frankie Bradshaw’s (Two Trains Running) production brings to vivid life the worlds of both Shona and Oliver as their stories twist together, unexpectedly!
Hear Me Now @ Cavern Theatre
Dates: 14 - 17 Feb 2023
About: “Being black is about fighting a white world. It’s about surviving. It’s about thriving.” Blackness is written in our history as a ‘spectacle’, Hear Me Now shows blackness as art itself. Emphasised by the black chorus, lived London experiences of stereotypes, prejudices and racism play out on the stage grounded in art and spoken word poetry. A creative and community-driven new piece of work from debut playwright, Mya Onwugbonu.
Enter the gallery, surround yourself with art and witness stories that are rarely told and shared, but seem all too familiar to some. At the end of the performance, take your chance to take to the stage, say ‘Hear Me Now’ and be heard.
It’s the London Life. Where black is defined. It’s the London Life. Stories of youth in strife. It’s the London Life. Blackness is on the rise.
Trouble in Butetown @ Donmar Warehouse
Dates: 10 Feb - 25 Mar 2023
About: In her illegal boarding house in Butetown, Cardiff, Gwyneth Mbanefo (Sarah Parish, Bancroft) toils tirelessly to keep afloat.
It’s a port town during the war; home to souls from every corner of the globe. When Nate (BIFA winner Samuel Adewunmi), an African American GI, escapes his barracks and discovers this new world without segregation, can he find safe harbour in Tiger Bay? And with danger on every corner, who can he trust? .
Noughts + Crosses @ Rose Theatre
Dates: 31 Jan - 11 Feb 2023
About: Sephy is a Cross and Callum is a Nought. Between Noughts and Crosses there are racial and social divides. A segregated society teeters on a volatile knife edge. As violence breaks out, Sephy and Callum draw closer, but this is a romance that will lead them into terrible danger.
This gripping Romeo and Juliet story by acclaimed writer Malorie Blackman and adapted by Sabrina Mahfouz is a captivating drama of love, revolution and what it means to grow up in a divided world.
Did you know these shows were happening or are they news to you? Let us know in the comments.