
What are the themes of your play?
Friendship, Liberation, Slavery, Misogyny, Islamophobia, Colonisation, but above all, Friendship and Sisterhood.
Why did you write it and why now?
Though I’ve been a victim of extremist Islam, I have always been protective of the faith and of the deeply feminist aspects that existed within it, which colonisation and capitalism corrupted. I also got tired of the argument that because Black Africans enslaved each other, the transatlantic slave trade was somehow a less contentious evil. This play dramatises that period in history with tow incredible women at the centre of the story.
Which playwrights are you influenced by and why?
This play, particularly was inspired by Ben Power’s adaptation of The Lehman Trilogy, and Mathew Lopez’s The Inheritance. In those plays, the main characters simply stood on stage and narrated their stories, which reminded me of oral storytelling traditions from West Africa. This is what I have tried to do here.
What do you hope to achieve as a playwright?
Quite simply, to expand the possibilities for greater understanding between Earth’s creatures. We are after all, stardust contemplating stars; earthlings contemplating earth. The barriers we think that exist between us are unnecessary fictions.
Photo credit: Heather Tomlinson