21 September – 14 October Read our review on 29 September
How do you break up with your best friend?
“When you’ve known someone basically your whole life,
Since you were five,
And you know all the same people,
And everyone you know knows you as one special Thing,
Sister-friends.”
Meet Lady, a determined sharp-tongued charmer who loves her best friend Gemma as much as she loves a late-night kebab. It’s Gemma’s birthday party. The two haven’t seen each other for six months.
tiata fahodzi, the UK’s leading British African heritage contemporary theatre company alongside co-producing partners Bristol Old Vic and Belgrade Theatre present the premiere of cheeky little brown, by Papatango Prize-winning playwright Nkenna Akunna (Some of Us Exist in the Future).
This solo show stars Tiajna Amayo as Lady (ORANGE TREE THEATRE, UNICORN THEATRE, POLKA) and follows her story on a failed night out. Part drama, part musical with a playlist of original and familiar songs, cheeky little brown is a deep and sometimes surreal exploration of friendship, first queer heartbreak, and self-acceptance.
Akunna says: “cheeky little brown is an ode to your early twenties, a second coming of age, an aesthetically pleasing panic attack. It’s a story about a young woman’s resistance to change in the people and the city she calls home, and ultimately her journey toward a new beginning.”
cheeky little brown continues tiata fahodzi’s 25th anniversary commitment to investing in the future of African heritage artists and giving voice to their contemporary world. The production marks British Nigerian playwright Akunna’s first play to be staged as a fully realised production.
Director Chinonyerem Odimba whose long creative history with Bristol Old Vic includes as writer on attachment and the theatre producing several of her plays (including the critically-acclaimed Princess and the Hustler about the Bristol Bus Boycott) adds: “This beautiful contemporary anti-romcom by Nkenna Akunna brings story and song together in this intimate drama centred around Lady’s life, and how she will survive confronting love and life at a birthday party. How we celebrate the moments of growing into ourselves no matter how painful and funny. This feels like a tiata fahodzi play in its truest sense, and a joy to open our season with. We are also very lucky to be working with exciting theatres such as Belgrade and Bristol Old Vic on this.”
The play is the first co-production in Bristol Old Vic’s Weston Studio as part of Artistic Director Nancy Medina’s inaugural season and forms part of her commitment to longer runs of new writing in the Studio to help develop their audiences. She comments: “I fell in love with Nkenna’s lead character the first moment I read about her messy, human life with all its beautiful failings, humour and honesty. To platform a Black, Queer female voice at this moment is so exciting. I feel our Weston Studio theatre is a space for supporting and showcasing new writing and new talent from a multitude of voices – a space to tell stories that will connect with you. That we are able to do this with our friends at tiata fahodzi in our first co-production with them is such an honour and privilege.”
Bristol Old Vic, King Street, Bristol, BS1 4ED
Box Office: (including mailing list enquiries and amendments)
0117 987 7877 / tickets@bristololdvic.org.uk
Artwork credit: Fourth Wall PR
