Talawa Theatre Company is a Black British theatre company founded in 1986."Black & Asian Performance in Britain 1970 onwards - Talawa Theatre Company". V&A."Records of Talawa Theatre Company, 1962-2007", Victoria and Albert Museum: Theatre Collections.
The core of Talawa's work is championing reinterpretations of classic plays, developing new writing and directing talent, and developing and producing new plays from and about the Black British community and Caribbean and African diaspora within Britain."New Black theatre companies", Moving Here – Migration histories.
Talawa Theatre Company is a National Portfolio Organisation, supported by funding from Arts Council England in recognition of consistently high-quality artistic work, and was one of very few organisations to receive an uplift in its grant for the period between 2018 and 2022 in recognition for its audience development.
Since 2011, Talawa Theatre Company has been led by CEO and Artistic Director Michael Buffong, whose career spans theatre, television, radio and film.Gardner, Lyn (9 June 2015), "Do we need diversity quotas for theatre?", The Guardian.Snow, Georgia (5 June 2015), "Michael Buffong: 'Use diversity quotas or nothing will change'", The Stage."Bringing Black into the Theatre Mainstream" (Michael Buffong profile), Arts Industry (AI), 16 December 2012.
In February 2019, Buffong announced plans for a 200-seat on-site performance space at Croydon's Fairfield Halls, describing the move as enabling the organisation to "make outstanding work which will truly diversify and shape the cultural life of the whole country." Carolyn ML Forsyth joined the organisation in November 2020 to work alongside Michael Buffong as joint CEO and executive director.
Talawa's 2021 season, coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighted a mix of livestreamed work and online workshops gradually building towards live performance later in the year.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, and along with all Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisations, Talawa was granted an additional year's grant extension to ensure stability. The 2023-2026 investment programme from Arts Council England ensured that Talawa retained its NPO status with an enhanced grant in view of its audience development and community engagement activity.
The name Talawa comes from a Jamaican patois saying "Me lickle but me talawa","Our Story", Talawa website. meaning to be small but strong.Obano, Nisha, "Talawa Theatre Company". Encyclopedia of AfroEuropean Studies.
Mission The company's stated mission is "to champion Black Excellence in theatre; to nurture talent in emerging and established artists of African or Caribbean heritage and to tell inspirational and passionate stories reflecting Black experiences through art.""Talawa's Mission", Talawa Theatre website. In doing so, the company provides opportunities for black directors, writers and actors, and creatives to make theatre on British stages, and to enlarge theatre audiences seeing black work. Talawa's work embraces touring classical works on the mid-scale to regional theatres in the UK, literary and participation activities, finding and developing new writers and scripts, and developing theatre-makers, artists and directors. Alongside this, Talawa also runs unconscious bias training workshops for educational institutions and corporate clients.
History Jamaican-born Yvonne Brewster, Mona Hammond, and Guyanese Carmen Munroe and Inigo Espejel founded the company in 1986.Iqbal, Nosheen (29 May 2011), "Talawa theatre company: the fights of our lives", The Guardian.
Talawa's first production in 1986 was The Black Jacobins by C. L. R. James, a play that had not been performed in England for 50 years, and never before with an all-black cast."Programme for The Black Jacobins by C L R James, 1986". Collection items, British Library.
Since then, Talawa has produced and toured classic work by numerous playwrights and writers including Dennis Scott, Derek Walcott, Galt MacDermot, Sol B River, Wole Soyinka, James Baldwin, Michael Abbensetts, Trevor Rhone, William Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett, Tariq Ali, Theresa Ikoko, Natasha Marshall and Arthur Miller and worked with a variety of directors and actors including Michaela Coel, Cathy Tyson, Dona Croll, Ray Shell, Norman Beaton, Horace Ove, Paulette Randall, Don Warrington, Sharon D Clarke, Fraser Ayres and David Harewood.Howard, Tony (25 March 2014), "We need more racial diversity on the stage both sides of the pond", New Statesman.
Talawa had a home at Bloomsbury's Jeannetta Cochrane Theatre from 1991 until 1995, a period within which the company achieved a high profile.Bartholomew, Roy (1 November 1995), "Homeless, but not rootless", The Independent. Following the departure from the Cochrane Theatre in 1995, the failed attempt to secure a new theatre space in Victoria, and the departure of its founder Yvonne Brewster in 2003, Talawa was briefly led by Ben Thomas, and then Bonnie Greer, Paulette Randall, and Patricia Cumper, under whose direction the company regained Arts Council funding."Patricia Cumper ends five-year run at Talawa", The Stage, 29 June 2011. Michael Buffong took over the helm from Patricia Cumper, securing enhanced Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation status for the company and leading to a renewed profile for its work with new artists and its revived classic theatre productions.Thorpe, Vanessa (25 October 2015), "After a century of black British theatre, actors still struggle to take centre stage" (on Lenny Henry's BBC Radio 4 series), The Observer. Michael Buffong featured on Creative Reviews "50 Creative Leaders" list in 2017, having also featured in the Powerlist that celebrates Britain's most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage.
In February 2019, plans for a 200-seat on-site performance space at Croydon's Fairfield Halls were revealed. The move gave Talawa its first such space since a residency at the Cochrane Theatre came to an end in 1995.
Artist development As well as touring major works across the UK, Talawa Theatre Company commissions new plays, and develops theatre artists and directors.
In January 2017, Talawa announced the creation of MAKE, a career development community of Black theatre artists. The MAKE community creates 250 new opportunities for Black artists every year, across four areas, enabling artists to make connections and build the support they need to create new work. A Talawa spokesperson commented that "Diversity projects tend to be just that – projects – and as a quick-fix approach, they are not building an infrastructure. What we need is sustained engagement that provides artists with a pathway into the industry, and the footholds to keep them there ...".
As part of MAKE, Talawa also offers a script reading service and produces an annual season of play readings, named Talawa Firsts, which showcases the best new black writing talent. The company also supports and develops emerging theatre-makers – performers, designers and technicians – through their flagship participation programmes TYPT, and Studio Firsts.John Nassouri, "Islington people: BBC director takes reins at Black-led theatre company", Islington Gazette, 24 June 2012.
Recent productions Talawa Theatre Company co-produces a major touring production annually in addition to a rolling programme of artist development and showcases of new work.
Productions in the 2020s
Play On! Talawa's production of Play On! toured the UK from September 2024 to February 2025. Set in the 1940s at New York's Cotton Club, this retelling of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night was a co production with Belgrade Theatre, Birmingham Hippodrome, Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and Wiltshire Creative. The production was directed by Talawa's Artistic Director Michael Buffong, with Kenrick H2O Sandy as choreographer, and production design by ULTZ.
Reception to the production was broadly positive, with The Guardian, The Times, The Observer, The Standard, All That Dazzles, London Theatre, and The Stage all awarding 4 stars to the production.https://www.allthatdazzles.co.uk/post/review-play-on-lyric-hammersmiththestage.co.uk
The Bristol 24/7 review stated that the production was "charming, enchanting, and laugh-out-loud funny..." Of the 5-star reviews, Spy in the Stalls noted the "ever-increasing 'wow factor,https://thespyinthestalls.com/2025/02/play-on/ Theatre Weekly described it as "an exhilarating production that melts the winter blues", with What's On Stage singling out the ensemble for praise.
Play On! was part of Talawa's revived "Black Joy" season.
Recognition Recognition is co-created by Amanda Wilkin and Rachael Nanyonjo, written by Amanda Wilkin and directed by Rachael Nanyonjo. Recognition has original music composed by Mercury Prize-nominated Seed Ensemble leader Cassie Kinoshi (published by Decca Publishing) as well as Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's compositions.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was a successful dual-heritage African and British composer and Croydon resident. Talawa Theatre Company presented Recognition as part of This Is Croydon, London Borough of Culture 2023 programme.
Recognition was largely well received, with one reviewer describing it as "a superb piece of theatre", while others parised the assured direction and the elegance of the staging and strong performances.
Running With Lions Written by Sian Carter (née Davila), Running With Lions began life as an audio play directed by Michael Buffong on BBC Radio 4 as part of the Talawa Stories season. In September 2021, Lyric Hammersmith announced the co-production with Talawa of Sian Carter's Running With Lions, which would again be directed by Buffong, the production being performed in February 2022.
Running With Lions was well received, with critics reserving praise for Carter's writing
A Place For We A Place for We by Archie Maddocks was announced as a co-production between Talawa Theatre Company and Park Theatre, opening in early October 2021. Having been postponed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the production returned with a cast including David Webber and Blake Harrison, in a production directed by Michael Buffong. Referring to the story and setting of A Place For We, Buffong said: "In Talawa's 35-year history we've been at the forefront of presenting the issues faced by our communities. More than ever, gentrification is the pressing issue of our day." Critical receptions to the play were largely complimentary, with reviews awarding three to five stars. The Guardian review held particular praise for the "subtlety and naturalism" of the production, awarding four stars. Awarding five stars, the Theatre Weekly review dubbed A Place for We "the funniest play of the year". What's On Stage commented that "This production has been a long time coming... but rest assured, it has been worth the wait".
Run It Back Run It Back is a show with a live DJ set inspired by Black British club culture and was originally devised by Talawa Theatre Company's TYPT 2018 company. Run It Back would have opened the Talawa Studio at Fairfield Halls in spring 2020, but plans were postponed following the lockdowns arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Run It Back was revived in September 2021 to both critical and audience acclaim. The reviewer for The Stage awarded the production five stars, stating that it was: "full of exuberance, but it’s not an uncritical celebration. The piece also offers gentle interrogation of some of the more problematic elements of music and club culture, by highlighting homophobic lyrics and violently misogynist behaviour that so often goes unchecked." Meanwhile, The Guardian went further, with Arifa Akbar declaring Run It Back to be: "the purest enactment of 'black joy' – as a political act – I have seen in the past year."
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