Inua Ellams’ Barber Shop Chronicles to return to the National in November 2017
Theatre news
FOLLOWING a hugely successful opening at the Dorfman Theatre on June 7, Kate McGrath at Fuel has confirmed that Barber Shop Chronicles will return to the National Theatre as part of its autumn season. Dates will be announced in due course.
Newsroom, political platform, local hot-spot, confession box, preacher-pulpit and football stadium – for generations, African men have gathered in barber shops to discuss the world.
This dynamic new play journeys from a barber shop in London, to Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Lagos and Accra. These are places where the banter can be barbed and the truth is always telling.
Kate McGrath, Director of Fuel, and Inua Ellams met in 2008, after Kate saw what became Inua’s first theatre show, The 14th Tale, at BAC. Fuel helped Inua develop his debut play and produced it, premiering it at the Edinburgh Festival, winning a Fringe First, touring it in the UK and internationally and presenting it at the National Theatre.
Since that first meeting, Fuel has worked closely with Inua, producing Untitled, Knight Watch, Long Song Goodbye, Black T-shirt Collection, The Spalding Suite, and now Barber Shop Chronicles. Fuel is also currently touring Inua’s An Evening with an Immigrant where with poems, stories and extracts from his plays, he tells about his life through the lens of immigration.
Further details, including casting information about the autumn run of Barber Shop Chronicles will be announced in due course.
The production is designed by Rae Smith, with lighting design by Jack Knowles, movement direction by Aline David and sound design by Gareth Fry.
Image: Anthony Welsh as Winston and Sule Rimi as Elnathan in Barber Shop Chronicles at the National Theatre. Photo by Marc-Brenner.