What To Watch: On Stage March 2023
Gone Too Far! @ Stratford East
Dates: 24 Mar – 01 Apr
About: Bola Agbaje’s Olivier Award-winning remarkable debut GONE TOO FAR! returns to the London stage in 2023 for the first time since becoming a GCSE set text.
When two brothers from different continents go down the street to buy a pint of milk, they lift the lid on a disunited nation; a world where everyone wants to be an individual, but no one wants to stand out from the crowd, and where respect is always demanded but rarely freely given.
Family Tree @ Belgrade Theatre
Dates: 10 - 18 Mar 2023
About: Family Tree is a beautifully poetic drama about race, health, the environment, and the incredible legacy of one of the most influential Black women of modern times. Fearlessly honest, hilarious, and ultimately transformative, this award-winning play is both a remembrance and a celebration
All Roads @ Theatre Peckham
Dates: 22 - 26 March
About: ALL ROADS is the world premiere of a new play by Roy Williams (Death of England, Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads) which explores what it means to love, grieve and build your own future, being young Black British today.
BLACK SUPERHERO @ Royal Court
Dates: 14 Mar - 29 Apr 2023
About: David is in love with King. But King is a superhero.
After an unexpected encounter David plunges himself into a world of sex, drugs and hero worship in the hope of being rescued, until fantasy and reality merge with devastating consequences.
Happy Meal @ Brixton House
Dates: 21 Feb - 11 Mar 2023
About: “Maybe Gender is like life? And like time too? In that it doesn’t actually exist and yet our world revolves around the expectations we put on it.”
Join us for an online show irl. Travel back to the quaint days of dial up and MSN, where you’ll follow two strangers on their journeys to become who they always were.
Belongings @ Brixton House
Dates: 21 - 25 Mar 2023
About: Following the acclaimed Butterflies (“a truly transformative experience” Children’s Theatre Review) Tangled Feet present their new show about how we all need somewhere to belong and someone to belong to.
Cleo is on a journey like no other. She’s trying to discover her past whilst attempting to stay on her feet in the present. Piles of clothes become sea creatures, dresses become parachutes and shadows dance as Cleo and two new friends find a place called home.
Inspired by working with young people in Kent who don’t live with their birth parents, Belongings is the story of finding your feet, finding your playmates & imagining a new future.
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).
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? .
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.
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.
Did you know these shows were happening or are they news to you? Let us know in the comments.