"Revolution is in the small steps that cover a long distance"
29 Sep 2022
On 19–22 October tiata fahodzi, the UK's leading British African heritage contemporary theatre company, come to Bristol Old Vic with Talking About A Revolution, part of their 25th Birthday season.
Talking About A Revolution is a triple bill of short plays written by three of the most exciting voices in British Theatre today Diana Nneka Atuona, babirye bukilwa and Malaika Kegode.
It answers the question on all our minds today: what would a revolution look like in 2022?
We caught up with two of the writers for a quick chat and asked them the question: what have you done that you feel is revolutionary?
Diana Nneka Atuona
Diana Nneka Atuona is a British born, Nigerian writer from Peckham, South London. She studied International Politics at South Bank University and was awarded a scholarship from Gray’s Inn to study Law, having always had a passion for writing for the stage and screen.
Her first play, Liberian Girl, won multiple awards. In 2014, Liberian Girl was performed as a staged presentation at The Summit to End Sexual Violence and in January 2015, it received its full production at the Royal Court Theatre, who have currently commissioned her with the Old Vic to develop work for television.
In June 2014, a Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict was hosted by Angelina Jolie and William Hague. It was attended by over 120 countries, 70 Foreign Ministers, over 100 NGOs, 900 experts from health, legal, military and academic fields, and many survivors.
As a contribution to the summit, my play, ‘Liberian Girl’ was performed to an audience, enabling them to see a dramatisation of war through the eyes of females. It was wonderful to be part of such a historic moment.
Malaika Kegode
Malaika Kegode is an award-winning writer, performer and creative producer based in Bristol. Beginning her arts career as a performance poet in 2014, Malaika has since developed her practice to encompass theatre, radio and film writing.
Her gig-theatre show Outlier, an autobiographical piece about addiction and isolation in rural England (performed with psych folk-rock band Jakabol) was the first piece of new writing to appear on Bristol Old Vic’s main stage in 2021, and it was sooo good it returned again this September (plus you can watch it On Demand until 1 Oct!)
As someone who over-thinks and over-criticises myself, a revolutionary thing for me has been to find forgiveness for the parts of myself I think of as weak – giving myself permission to admit when I don't understand something, or have made mistakes; to look into my past and find strength in the moments I've long felt ashamed of.
Revolution is in the small steps that cover a long distance. The tiniest change in our self view can inform huge change in what we put into the world.
babirye bukilwa
babirye bukilwa is an actor, model, poet and writer born and raised in London.
babirye's debut play Blackbird Hour was shortlisted for multiple awards including: the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting in 2019, the Inaugural Women's Prize for Playwriting in 2020 and the Alfred Fagon Award in 2020.
Their second play, an origin story to Blackbird Hour, called Cake debuted at Theatre Peckham in 2021, this play also received multiple nominations.
babirye's play The Master’s House was commissioned by the National Youth Theatre in 2021 and a short film was made based off its themes.
