BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES
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. These are places where the banter can be barbed and the truth is always telling.
Barber Shop Chronicles, which was partly inspired by verbatim recordings, is a heart-warming, hilarious and insightful play that leaps from a barber shop in Peckham to Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Lagos and Accra over the course of a single day.
It was first produced by the National Theatre, Fuel and Leeds Playhouse in 2017 and is here publishedas a Methuen Drama Student Edition with commentary and notes by Oladipo Agboluaje.
Table of Contents
CHRONOLOGY
COMMENTARY
PLAYWRIGHT
CONTEXT
Black British drama including work of practitioners such as Roy Williams, debbie tucker green and Mojisola Adebayo
THEMES
Masculinity including sport and sexuality and how it shapes characters and subverts universal and specifically black and African notions of masculinity
GENRE
Verbatim theatre use of transcripts to create a work of fiction ; comparing to other verbatim plays such as London Road and The Permanent Way
SETTING
Barbershop as a 'safe space' for black men
Diasporic movements - how the play's transnational locations construct a 'black' identity
PLAY TEXT
FURTHER READING
Edad recomendada: Adultos jóvenes.
ELLAMS INUA
Inua Ellams es un poeta, dramaturgo y artista multidisciplinario nacido en Nigeria en 1984 y radicado en el Reino Unido. Su obra se caracteriza por explorar temas como identidad, desplazamiento y destino, combinando influencias del hip hop, la poesía clásica y la narrativa oral africana. Entre sus trabajos más destacados están las obras teatrales Barber Shop Chronicles, The Half-God of Rainfall y Three Sisters, esta última una adaptación de Chéjov ambientada en la guerra de Biafra. También ha publicado varios libros de poesía, como Candy Coated Unicorns and Converse All Stars y The Actual. Ha sido galardonado con múltiples premios, incluyendo el Fringe First Award en el Festival de Edimburgo y la Medalla del Hay Festival por su contribución a la poesía. En 2023, fue nombrado Miembro de la Orden del Imperio Británico MBE por sus servicios a las artes.
