When: 31st October – 1st December 2012 at 8pm and Saturday matinees at 3pm
Where: Arcola Studio 2, 24 Ashwin Street, Dalston, London E8 3DL
£: 16, concessions 12 and Pay What You Can Tuesdays. Suitable for ages 14+
What is it?
World premiere of a fierce and lyrical new work from Chicago, but i cd only whisper is inspired by the work of celebrated poet and playwright Ntozake Shange. This poetic play tells the story of black Vietnam veteran Beau Willie Brown, following his arrest for a heinous crime in 1970s America. Through the echoes of machine guns, police sirens and chanted voices, this play addresses the stigmatisation and under-treatment of mental illness in the black community, and wrestles with demonising representations of black men in art and literature.
but i cd only whisper is written in poetic and phonetic style, refusing standardised grammar and spelling with a view to exploring the oral patterns of speech, an approach synonymous with both the poem inspiring the play and the writer’s own artistic philosophy. This is the first show to be presented in the brand new Studio 2 at the Arcola. The cast includes Adetomiwa Edun (BBC’s Merlin and Romeo and Juliet at the Globe), Sian Breckin (Chalet Lines at the Bush), Cornell S. John (Porgy and Bess at the Savoy) and Emmanuella Cole (Roadkill at the Traverse).
More info: www.arcolatheatre.com