Unlucky in Love? Love Steps By Anastasia Osei-Kuffour May Have The Answers You Have Been Looking For. At one point or another, I am sure we have all asked ourselves: When will it be my turn? When will I get the chance to experience that great love books and movies talk about as if it were a God-given right? On Thursday I had the great pleasure of peaking behind the curtain of one woman’s story that isn’t all sunshine, roses and easily-maintained relationships. Love Steps, written and directed by Anastasia Osei-Kuffour, uses poetry, dance, drama and music to delve into what it means to be a bl ..read more

A long weekend in Los Angeles forces two brothers to unpack generational trauma and question the validity of their existence as second-generation immigrants in multicultural America. It’s the 2020s, and Afrobeats has become mainstream in modern American pop culture; it’s no longer strange to hear Wizkid’s “Ojuelegba” or Burna Boy’s “Anybody” at a regular nightclub in San Diego. Beyond that, Ghana is awash with tourists in December and restaurants in Chicago wade into the jollof wars. It’s cool now to identify as African … or is it? This question, among others, is what Omar S. Kamara sets out ..read more

Tyrell Williams’ debut Red Pitch transferred to @sohoplace theatre after two sold-out runs at the Bush Theatre … The play is a charming and authentic portrayal of friendship, football, and what it means to grow up in social housing in modern-day Britain. With Williams drawing from his own experiences of being a young Black boy growing up on a council estate and seeing the progressive dramatic shift in demographics. We meet Bilal (Kedar Williams-Stirling), Joey (Emeka Sesay) and Omz (Francis Lovehall), three boys on the cusp of their GCSEs. What brings them together, aside from living on the s ..read more

One of Nollywood’s most successful filmmakers in recent years deploys an effective combination of brand goodwill, aggressive marketing and a fairly cohesive screenplay to break national box office records. An Ambitious Plot When she gets pregnant out of wedlock, Jedidah Judah is disowned by her conservative parents, forced to drop out of school, and flung into the streets. Her attempts at finding love (or companionship, at least) only result in serial misadventures, and she ends up being a mother to five sons, each by men in different ethnic groups. Despondency sets the tone for this crime dr ..read more

Jessica Hagan’s play Brenda’s Got a Baby is a delightfully wacky, look behind the curtain of womanhood, motherhood and relationships. On her 29th birthday Ama (Anita-Joy Uwajeh), gets the rude awakening that her career and eight-year-long relationship isn’t enough to keep her demons at bay. Her boyfriend Dami (Jordan Duvigneau) breaks up with her after falling for another woman. Whilst her newly married younger sister Jade (Jahmila Heath) and Mother (Michelle Asante) pressure her about marriage and motherhood. Brenda’s Got a Baby begins with Ama staunchly unbothered by the call of motherhood ..read more

I visited Theatre Peckham this week to watch the incredible play I Love Acting, But F*ck This Industry. I Love Acting But F*ck This Industry follows three young black actors looking to make a name for themselves in the bleak post-COVID entertainment industry. The audience are brought along on the perpetual ups and downs that each of them must face on their individual journeys towards greatness.  As we take to our seats, we are greeted by the laughter and affectionate taunting of frien ..read more

Particularly in recent times, it is hard to understate the relevance of The Crucible … From the 17th century, to the 50s’ McCarthyism (which Arthur Miller was writing under), to today’s claims of ‘cancel culture’, it seems that throughout history, humans as a collective have had an affinity for misguided mob justice. I say misguided, as, from what we can see with the actions of the play, people are too willing to accept lies as the truth to further their own agendas. Perhaps pessimistic, there can be great change made when we come together, after all. But, when watching this literal witch hun ..read more

Kalaf Epalanga’s debut novel Whites Can Dance Too is a momentous and invigorating glance behind the curtain of one man and his love affair with music and rhythm. Epalanga manages to intertwine difficult themes of love, freedom and the ever-encroaching harm of racism around the world, all to the beat of Kuduro, the techno-infused music of Angola and Epalanga himself. His novel follows three different voices as they live through their own stories and battle their own struggles, accompanied by music and dance. Kalaf Epalanga ©Sara DeSantis We are thrust into the story as we are introduced to Epa ..read more

Rebecca Frecknall returns to the Almeida stage with another scorcher. Following her smash hit A Streetcar Named Desire, she injects new energy into her adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Leaning heavily into the ‘two-hour traffic’ of the stage, the play runs for this exact length with no interval. The prologue, rather than being spoken, becomes a projected text on a wall that all the characters lean on and drop to form the set, each playing their own part in sending the lovers to their deaths. Certain scenes, such as Romeo slaying Paris in the Capulet tomb, are cut, and the ..read more

In a year when Beyoncé embarked on a record-breaking world tour … Britain crowned its first new monarch in 70 years and Rihanna emerged from her pseudo-retirement to headline the Super Bowl, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ranked as the most highly-anticipated event of the year and it wasn’t even close. It would be easy to point the fingers of blame for these lofty expectations at the Sony marketing machine, but in actual fact, the blame lies at Spidey’s own doorstep. 2018’s Into the Spider-Verse was a genre bending, world-colliding game changer that has come to redefine animation as we k ..read more