(emotive music playing)
Hello, I'm Winsome Pinnock and I'm a playwright
And I'm Ola Animashawun
and I'm a dramaturg and an Associate at the National Theatre.
(music continues)
Every Friday throughout Black History Month, we're going to be
talking about our favourite plays from the Black Plays Archive.
We're going to be talking about a whole host of plays from the
acclaimed classics right through to some hidden gems.
This week, I'm going to be talking about “Egusi Soup” by Janice Okoh,
her hilarious British Nigerian comedy.
‘Mummy! Why should people come and see “Egusi Soup”?
Who doesn’t like egusi soup?
I don't know anybody who’s eaten egusi soup
and they don't like it.
Hey, you have to come and see the show.
It’s egusi soup in a show.
How many times have you seen a family like this in the theatre?
Hey. This is your life we’re telling. This is your story.
So you get to come and see it.
Have you seen a family like this on television?
Me, I don't see too.
So come and see us on stage.
Come and enjoy the “Egusi Soup” now.’
It's a family drama, you know, classic family drama. Very traditional.
And it's called “Egusi Soup”, which is very hot, peppery
Nigerian dish, very spicy.
And that play is really hot and spicy.
It's got all the elements of sibling rivalry, of in-laws
a mother's expectations. As the contemporary British experience
rubs up against the traditional Nigerian expectations and traditions.
It's a joyful celebration and really funny play about grief,
which is true to our experience of family and our experience of life.
And of course, I loved it because of my British Nigerian experience as well.
What is so good about this play as I say,
is it’s comedy. It’s really, very funny.
The experience of being in an audience that is just laughing
and laughing through recognition and through representation.
And laughter is so bonding when an audience is laughing together.
They’re for that moment, they're united,
no matter what their backgrounds.
I like the idea that a play can allow me to enter someone else's world.
So I'm in their living room and I am having that meal with them.
And there is something about the way in which theatre
can allow the release
from these very difficult emotions.
It allows the light in again
and it reminds you of where the light is and where it is to be found.
I don't know this play, but I'm definitely going to look it up in the archive,
because it sounds exactly the type of thing that I'm interested in.
This week, I've chosen “Chiaroscuro” by Jackie Kay,
a poetic exploration of black female sexuality.
‘And then I see another picture.
We lie close, talking, tongues.
She's under my skin.
We are each other's dream.
Her and her opalescent eyes.
Me and my fireflies.
We are dusk and dawn together.
She is the first woman to see all of me
and keep holding.
Holding.’
- I didn't see it when it was first produced in 1986,
but it was revived at the Bush in 2019.
What I really loved about the play was because it's written by a poet,
it has this incredible poetic language in it.
And it focuses on four women
and it focuses on their relationships with each other.
And at the time that it was first produced, I imagine that would have been
a very controversial subject because it centres on a gay relationship.
But it looks in a wider sense at women's love for each other.
One of the ways you see this
is they all focus on the way in which they got their names.
And again, history is important here because
their names were often passed down through generations
through grandparents and great grandparents,
and passed down by women who were silenced,
women who were
perhaps enslaved women, who didn't have a voice.
I just think it's a wonderful piece of work and remains relevant.
And it brought a young audience into the theatre.
It sounds fantastic.
I don't know it. I'm going to have to read it now.
Yes, you must. You must.
(music continues)
The Black Plays Archive is an online catalogue
of every first professional production
of African, Caribbean, and black British plays in the UK.
- If you'd like to have a browse yourself,
and discover all the incredible plays
written by black playwrights,
go to blackplaysarchive.org.uk.
- [Ola] On the explore page,
you can search the archive
by different criteria,
including date of production,
name of the playwright or name of the play.
- Next week we’ll be revealing some incredible
hidden gems from the archive.
So join us then.