“This love word. Do people just use it when they feel sorry?”
Eshe hasn’t left the flat.
Loved-ones keep reaching out: blowing up her phone and showing up at her front door. They say they’re going to “save” her. She’s not saying anything back.
Until, in the dark early hours, surrounded by half-eaten food, dirty washing and a damn good playlist, she focuses on the letter in front of her.
…blackbird hour is a visceral and moving exploration of a queer Black woman’s call to arms for loving oneself when love has made itself scarce. Making its world premiere at the Bush Theatre, babirye bukilwa’s profound insight into caring and belonging serves as a continuation of their critically acclaimed playwriting debut …cake (Theatre Peckham).
Finalist for the Bruntwood Prize, Women’s Prize for Playwriting
Finalist for the Alfred Fagon Award
Looking for show information and content guidance?
…blackbird hour Self-Care Guide and Content Warnings
Asha is a Movement Director, Intimacy Coordinator and Intimacy Director for stage and screen. Selected credits include: Moulin Rouge (Piccadilly); MJ The Musical (Prince Edward); Till The Stars Come Down (National); Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest (Shakespeare’s Globe).
babirye is an actor and writer for stage, audio and screen. Their first play, …blackbird hour, was shortlisted for the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting in 2019, the inaugural Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2020, and the Alfred Fagon Award 2020. The play they wrote as it’s prequel, …cake, was presented at Theatre Peckham and was nominated for the Alfred Fagon Award in 2021.
They co-directed their play The Master’s House with Chris Sonnex for the National Youth Theatre in 2021, which was shortlisted for the George Devine Award 2022, and they developed it into an audio drama for Talawa Stories on BBC Radio 4. In 2022 two of their short plays were presented – YUMMY (Burn It Down festival at Theatre Royal Stratford East) and 616: DAWN (Talking about a Revolution at Watford Palace, Lyric Hammersmith Studio and Bristol Old Vic).
babirye is currently under commission to the Yard Theatre and to the Royal Court Theatre.
Gurkiran Kaur is a voice, accent and dialect coach from London. She holds a BA Drama and Theatre Studies (Royal Holloway), completed actor training (The Bridge Theatre Training Company) and has a MA Voice Studies (The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama). Gurkiran works at a number of drama schools and has coached a number of graduate productions and showcases. Gurkiran is part of The Voice And Speech Teaching Associations’ EduCore Leadership Team and serves as a Junior Board Member. Gurkiran honours Ancient practices to approach voice work and believes in serving the people in the space ensuring inclusivity, equity and accessibility.
Credits: Extinct (Stratford East); Queens of Sheba (Soho Theatre & Nouveau Riche); NW Trilogy (Kiln); How To Save The Planet When You’re A Young Carer And Broke (Boundless); Best of Enemies (Young Vic & Headlong); Chasing Hares (Young Vic & Uncut); I Wonder If (Young Vic); Red Pitch (also West End), Favour, The P Word, Paradise Now, Sleepova, A Playlist For The Revolution (Bush); Lotus Beauty (Hampstead & Tamasha); Henry VIII (Globe); Offside (Futures Theatre); Marvin’s Binoculars, Anansi The Spider (Unicorn); The Climbers (Theatre By The Lake); Finding Home (Curve); The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Noel Coward); Silence (Donmar & Tara); A Dead Body In Taos (Fuel); Unexpected Twist (Royal & Derngate); Wuthering Heights (China Plate); I Wanna Be Yours (Melbourne Theatre Company); The Empress, Falkland Sound (Royal Shakespeare Company); Brassic FM (Gate); A Poem For Rabia (Tarragon Theatre, Toronto); The Full Monty (Everyman, Cheltenham & Buxton Opera House); Good Karma Hospital (ITV & Tiger Aspect Productions) and Hotel Portofino (ITV, PBS & Eagle Eye).
Jahmiko is a Lighting and Sound Designer from Bermuda. He obtained his Lighting Technology Certificate from Stagecraft Institute of Las Vegas. He was a student at LAMDA studying towards his BA Hons in Production and Technical Arts.
Khadija is a theatre designer. Selected credits include: Peanut butter and blueberries (Kiln Theatre); The Secret Garden, (Regents Park Open Air Theatre); Untitled F*ck M*ss S**gon Play (Royal Exchange Theatre / MIF / Headlong / Young Vic); Girl in the Machine (Young Vic); Bach & Sons (Bridge Theatre); A History of Water in the Middle East (Royal Court).
malakaï is a multidisciplinary artist, educator and producer from pre-gentrified northeast London. Led by curiosity and care, malakaï works across theatre, festivals, literature, audio and live events– creating and interrogating through an unapologetically Afroqueer lens. Their work is often non-linear, employing unconventional forms that disrupts notions of time and space; orbiting around ideas of Black interiority, hood surrealism and carceral geographies.
malakaï’s directing credits include: The Master’s House (Talawa/BBC Radio 4/BBC Sounds), The Costumed Gallery (UAL/National Gallery), Still Here? (Unicorn Theatre), Yummy (Theatre Royal Stratford East), We Are Here to Make Change (Royal Court), …cake (Theatre Peckham), Do Nitties Live Forever? (Battersea Arts Centre), Over To You (Tamasha/Rich Mix), Void (The S+K Project/Battersea Arts Centre), I Am Not A _____, (Immediate Theatre/Chat’s Palace), Platform Tottenham (The S+K Project/Royal Court Theatre/Bernie Grant Arts Centre).
As associate/assistant director: Hyde and Seek directed by Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu (Guildhall School of Music & Drama), Foxes directed by James Hillier (Defibrillator Theatre/Theatre503), Calm directed by Stella Odunlami (Hackney Empire), Decolonising History directed by Anthony Simpson-Pike (Tamasha/SOAS).
Mwen is a multifaceted artist, working as a theatre sound designer and composer, music producer, and live performing artist. Their creative practice blends the realms of music technology, electronic music, live sound, and performance.
Vital Xposure is a disabled-led touring theatre company that promotes hidden voices with extraordinary stories to tell. For over a decade, they have made disabled-led*, radical, political performance championing hidden stories and marginalised voices.
From their base in Hackney, London, they make national-touring, accessible work and position themselves at the forefront of research and learning around disabled performance. Led by award-winning neurodivergent director and producer, Stephen Bailey, their work centres narrative which you will not find on other stages, looking to people’s stories which are not otherwise given air and space.
*Vital Xposure use the term ‘disability’ to cover a broad scope of identities. Every person has a unique experience and the right to choose their own terminology.
Will is a London based lighting and projection designer. His work has accessibility at the heart of it; driven by collaboration and variety, he is always exploring new ways in which the world can be seen.
