Chinonyerem Odimba and Marti Burgess
Chinonyerem Odimba is a rising star of contemporary British playwrighting. Her hotly anticipated new play Princess & The Hustler opens this February at Bristol Old Vic, before embarking on a UK tour.
It tells the story of cheeky ten-year-old Princess, who has a plan to win the Weston-super-Mare Beauty Contest. Set against 1963 Bristol, as Black British Civil Rights campaigners walk onto the streets, Princess finds out what it really means to be black and beautiful.
In this conversation with Marti Burgess, Chair of St Paul’s Carnival, Chinonyerem will be talking about the themes of Black beauty and the emergence of the Black civil rights movement in the UK, her theatrical influences and the role of the playwright to speak truth in a dishonest world.
Born in Nigeria and raised in London, Chinonyerem Odimba is a writer on attachment for Bristol Old Vic and Clean Break Theatre, London and has written plays for the Arcola, Bristol Old Vic and Kiln Theatre (formerly Tricycle Theatre). She has written short plays Scotch Bonnet and A Blues for Nia for the BBC and her first radio play, written in collaboration, The Last Flag was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2018. Chinonyerem is the winner of the Sonia Friedman Award (Channel 4 Playwright Bursary) 2018 and has also been shortlisted for the Adrienne Benham Award, the Alfred Fagon and the Bruntwood Playwriting Award.
Presented in partnership with Festival of Ideas
