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To Be Confirmed.
Performance dates
31 August - 05 October 2019
Run time: To be confirmed.
Includes interval
3 reviews
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I want to find it all now
know our names know the others in history
so many women have been lost at sea
so many stories have been swept away
Chiaroscuro: (noun) the treatment of light and shade in drawing and painting.
Aisha, Yomi, Beth and Opal couldn’t be more different, but when Aisha hosts a dinner party, the friends soon discover that they’re all looking for an answer to the same question. Does it lie in Aisha’s childhood? Or in Beth and Opal’s new romance? Who will tell them who they really are?
What starts out as a friendly conversation between women, soon turns heated when Yomi reveals what she really thinks about Beth and Opal’s relationship.
Live music and spoken word collide in an explosive gig-theatre event that breathes new life into Scottish National Poet Jackie Kay’s 1986 masterpiece. Directed by Lynette Linton (Sweat, Richard II), this bold reimagining explores the experiences of women of colour across generations and celebrates female identity from the 1980s to now.
Chiaroscuro will be the final edition in the Passing the Baton series, following the acclaimed revival of Winsome Pinnock’s Leave Taking (2018), and the anticipated production of Caryl Phillips’ Strange Fruit (2019).
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There will be an Audio Described Performance Saturday 28 Sept at 2.30pm.Recent Reviews
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Features
Top 6 must-see London shows for Black History Month UK 2019
It's October, and although for many people that means Halloween, scary movies, and sweater weather, the first full month of autumn is also a very important time for cultural recognition! Having been observed annually in the UK for nearly 40 years, Black History Month is now upon us! And this year's Black History Month is already set to be extra special thanks to the upcoming inaugural Black British Theatre Awards, an all-new ceremony set to honour black talent in the British performing arts for (surprisingly) the first time ever.
This recent development in UK theatre has been long overdue, especially when you consider that talented black British artists and playwrights have been on the scene for a very long time, making extraordinary headway in recent years with both West End and Off-West End productions. Perhaps a shocking testament to the conservatism of UK theatre is that it wasn't until very recently (at the end of 2018, in fact) that Natasha Gordon's play Nine Night became the first-ever play by a black British playwright to run in London's West End after the show transferred from the National Theatre to Trafalgar Studios.
It's now becoming increasingly evident that theatres nationwide are making unprecedented efforts to cast the spotlight on new voices never before heard in major theatrical productions. These endeavours are undoubtedly a fantastic step in the right direction, but it stills leaves many of us wondering why diversification wasn't being fought for ages ago. Nevertheless, we can't argue that the right thing is finally being done and we couldn't be more excited about the future of black British talent.
Thus, we present our picks for the Top Six London Theatre Shows You Should See For This Year's Black History Month below. Do you agree with our list?
1 Oct, 2019 | By Nicholas Ephram Ryan Daniels