What To Watch: On Stage May 2023

New month with another massive list of shows to watch during the month. Remember to check out the last post here as some shows are still.

Big Aunty by Corey Campbell

Dates: 24 Apr – 6 May 2023
About: Big Aunty’s dead. Her funeral’s back in Jamaica, where she returned some years ago. The children she brought up together long ago, but have lost touch and gone their separate ways, are now forced to come together again, all these years later.
> More information / book tickets here

When All Is Said

Showing at: Shoreditch Town Hall, London
When: 02 - 06 May 2023
About: When All Is Said is the latest work curated by award-winning theatre maker Travis Alabanza. The five plays, written by five black trans writers, have been written to be performed down the telephone, to audiences at home, at work, or wherever they may be.
> More information / book tickets here

We Need New Names

Showing at: Brixton House, London, UK
When: 28 Apr - 6 May 2023
About: Paradise. Home of 10-year-old Darling and her friends: four children on the edge of innocence. A playground overflowing with mischief and games where they imagine countries a luxurious life away from theirs in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.
> More information / book tickets here

i Love Acting but F*ck This Industry / Theatre Peckham

Showing at: Theatre Peckham, London, UK
When: 5, 6 & 31 May 2023
About: A global pandemic that flipped an industry on its head.

Manny, Ade, and Zion are three “urban” South London natives trying to navigate their way through the post-pandemic acting industry in 2023. Both their group dynamic and mental health are put to the test along the way.

Three close friends battling the romance between craft and the disheartening acting industry that pays for it.
> More information / book tickets here

For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy at Apollo Theatre, London

Dates: 25 Mar - 07 May 2023
About: Father figures and fashion tips. Lost loves and jollof rice. African empires and illicit sex. Good days and bad days. Six young Black men meet for group therapy, and let their hearts – and imaginations – run wild.

For Black Boys  is located on the threshold of joyful fantasy and brutal reality: a world of music, movement, storytelling and verse – where six men clash and connect in a desperate bid for survival.

> Book tickets here

STARS: An Afrofuturist Space Odyssey by Mojisola Adebayo

Showing at: ICA London
When: 13 Apr - 04 May 2023
About: A new afrofuturist music play about pleasure, desire and female orgasms. STARS is a hilarious and moving mix of celebratory Black queer empowerment and arousal.
> More information here

RICHARD III

Showing at: Rose Theatre, Kingston Upon Thames. UK
When: 26 Apr - 13 May 2023
About: What happens when a person who has been punched down upon all their life, finally punches back?

Bridgerton star Adjoa Andoh shifts the lens on Shakespeare’s most iconic villain Richard III, questioning what we think we know of him, in this blistering new production.
> More information / book tickets here

Breakin’ Convention presents The Ruggeds – State Shift

Showing at: Sadlers Wells, London, UK
When: 26 - 27 May 2023
About: State Shift is a performance about adaptability, with the solo Turns and the duet Waterbrothers.
> More information / book tickets here

Retrograde by Ryan Calais Cameron

Showing at: Kiln Theatre, London, UK
When: 20 Apr - 27 May 2023
About: From the writer of award-winning, sold-out, For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy, Ryan Calais Cameron’s explosive new play explores identity, resilience, and integrity as it examines a true event in 1950’s Hollywood and the reality of a Black actor’s journey to stardom.
> More information / book tickets here

No Man's Island

Showing at: The Big House, London, UK
When: 03 May - 27 May 2023
About: A musical banger! No Man’s Island, written by rapper Jammz & actor James Meteyard. EXPLORE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, GRIME & DRILL MUSIC!
> More information / book tickets here

THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES

Showing at: Almedia Theatre, London, UK
When: 8 Apr – 27 May 2023
About: rom the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of Sweat, the Tony Award-winning composer of Spring Awakening, and Tony Award-nominated lyricist of Jelly’s Last Jam, comes a captivating new musical about a group of women ignited by rebellion and longing for acceptance.
> More information / book tickets here

August in England by Lenny Henry

Showing at: Bush Theatre, London, UK
When: 28 April - 10 June.
About:Charming, flawed, and with the gift of the gab, we all know a man like August Henderson. Between his three kids, devoted wife-to-be, and part-ownership of a fruit and veg shop, he is proud of the life he has built since landing in his beloved West Bromwich.

So, when faced with deportation to a country he has no memory of, he isn’t prepared to go quietly. Listen up, he is ready to tell his own story.
> More information / book tickets here

Once On This Island

Showing at: Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London, UK
When: 10 May – 10 Jun 2023
About: A musical story of love, grief, faith and hope, Once On This Island tells of peasant girl Ti Moune, a boy called Daniel, and a union that prejudice forbids. Against the heat of the Caribbean sun and destruction of tropical storms, can Ti Moune settle the wager of the Gods, and prove that love is more powerful than death?
> More information / book tickets here

Under the Kundé Tree by Clarisse Makundul

Showing at: Southwark Playhouse, London, UK
When: 24 May - 17 June 2023
About: Under the Kundè Tree is set in the 50s during the secret Cameroonian War of Independence. It follows Sara, a young woman, struggling to strike a balance between her heart’s desire and the pressure to fulfil traditional familial obligations.

Tackling issues of colonialism, love, family, identity and freedom, this story explores themes of contemporary relevance, whilst reading an overlooked and often unknown period of history.
> More information / book tickets here

Ain’t Too Proud

Showing at: Prince Edward Theatre, London, UK
When: 31 Mar - 1 Oct 2023
About: AIN’T TOO PROUD is the exhilarating new musical following the remarkable journey of THE TEMPTATIONS from the streets of Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
> More information / book tickets here

Did you know these shows were happening or are they news to you? Let us know.