Adeola Solanke FRSA, commonly known as Ade Solanke, is a British playwright and screenwriter. She is best known for her debut stage play, Pandora's Box, which was produced at the Arcola Theatre in 2012, and was nominated for the Offie for Best New Play."Ade Solanke", Royal Literary Fund. Her other writing credits include the award-winning BBC Radio drama series Westway and the Nigerian feature film Dazzling Mirage (2014)."Tunde Kelani Unveils First Official Poster For ‘Dazzling Mirage’ film about Sickle Cell", AllAfricanCinema, 31 July 2013."East Meets West", ReConnect Africa, July 2014. She is the founder and creative director of the company Spora Stories, whose aim is to "create original drama for stage and screen, telling the dynamic stories of the African diaspora." Solanke has previously worked as an arts journalist and in radio and television,Doyin Iyiola, "A Lady Titan Abudding", African Concord, Vol. 4, No. 19, 4 September 1989.Ade Solanke, "How to succeed in business", The Guardian, 20 September 1989. and in 1988 set up Tama Communications, offering a writing and publicity service, whose clients included the BBC, the Arts Council and the Midland Bank."Prizewinning communicator goes networking in Atlanta", Caribbean Times, 26 November 1991.
Early years and education Born to Nigerian parents in London, Ade Solanke was brought up with her three sisters in Ladbroke Grove and Notting Hill, in the west of the capital.Sophia A. Jackson, "Ade Solanke, Pandora’s Box", Afridiziak, 2 May 2012.Karla Williams, "The London via Lagos interview with Ade Solanke, Pandora's Box", Afridiziak, 5 April 2011.Sarah Bloomer, "Pandora's Box (Tour - Salford)", What's On, 14 September 2014."Ade Solanke", Inclusion at Sheffield, The University of Sheffield. She earned an MFA in Screenwriting from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, where she was a Fulbright Scholar and Phi Beta Kappa international scholar. She also has a postgraduate diploma in creative writing from Goldsmiths, University of London, and an honours degree in English literature from the University of Sheffield."Ade Solanke" at Black Plays Archive.
Career She worked as a story analyst for several Hollywood companies, including Sundance, New Line and Disney. Her first screenplay, Femi’s Thirtieth, was a semi-finalist in the annual Nicholl screenwriting contest in Los Angeles. It was also a semi-finalist in the Amblin/Chesterfield Screenwriting contest, also in LA. Her second screenplay, Finishing School, also reached the Nicholl semi-finals. For some years she worked as an arts journalist, writing for publications including The Times Literary Supplement, The Voice, The Guardian, the New Statesman and West Africa Magazine. In 1988 she set up Tama Communications, a writing, research and publicity service "sympathetic to the needs of the voluntary sector and black organisations","Getting on top of the business", African Times, 27 July 1989. that was judged an "outstanding enterprise" and won the London's Top Youth Enterprise title in the 1989 London Livewire competition to find the best young business brains.Tony Maguire, "Meet the Livewire birds", Evening Standard, 7 June 1989."Ade's a real live wire", The Voice, Issue 380, 27 June 1989."Freelance scoops 1st prize", Freelance (NUJ Freelance branch bulletin), September 1989. She has also taught at several universities, among them Goldsmiths, University of London, and Pan-African University, Lagos, Nigeria, as well as at such institutions as London's City Lit"Humanities" , City Lit Summer Courses for Adults, April–July 2008. and in Zimbabwe at the Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa.Tinashe Sibanda, "Solanke to work on local film adaptations", NewsDay, 8 July 2014."Pandora’s Box, Crucible Studio" , Doncaster Free Press, 18 September 2014. In 2015, she joined the University of Greenwich, where she is a senior lecturer in Creative Writing.
Her work for radio includes being on the writing team of the award-winning BBC drama series Westway. In 2009 she was commissioned by the NHS to write Family Legacy,"The Family Legacy Trailer", YouTube, 18 December 2012. a Nollywood-style film drama drawing on the real-life experiences of people living with sickle-cell disease, which has been disseminated widely on television channels and elsewhere in the UK, USA and West Africa, reaching more than 12 million people in outreach campaigns."Sickle Cell Awareness", Research Excellence Framework 2014. She subsequently wrote the screenplay for Dazzling Mirage (2014), adapted from the novel of the same name by Olayinka Abimbola Egbokhare, produced and directed by Tunde Kelani.Iyamide Thomas, "Get ready to be ‘Dazzled’ - Sickle Cell Film Premieres in the UK" , Sickle Cell Society Newsletter, Winter 2015, p. 13.
Pandora's Box Solanke's first stage play to be produced, Pandora's Box, which was initially showcased in July 2008 as part of Tiata Fahodzi's Tiata Delights at the Almeida Theatre, had its world premiere and sold-out shows at the Arcola Theatre, Hackney, in 2012,Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo, "FAB Culture: Pandora’s Box World Premiere", FAB Magazine, 11 April 2012."Press", Spora Stories. subsequently touring nationally in 2014 to 16 venues around the UK, the largest-ever tour for a black play in the UK."British-African family drama set to open lid on difficulties of family life", Salisbury Journal, 2 October 2014. "An exuberant and thought-provoking mix of comedy, tragedy and family drama", Pandora's Box deals with the dilemma of a British-Nigerian mother, on holiday in Lagos with her streetwise son, about whether to leave him in a strict Nigerian boarding-school or bring him back to the battlefields of inner-city London."Spora Stories – PANDORA’S BOX by Ade Solanke, Directed by Shade Oladiti", Arcola Theatre.
The play won five-star reviews and was praised as "Honest, simple, enthralling … absolutely brilliant" (The Public Reviews) and "Firecracker theatre … touching … hilarious" (The Stage). Reviewing it for The Guardian, Lyn Gardner wrote: "Pandora's Box buzzes with life and the tensions of real people struggling to make the best of their lives while dealing with the legacies left from the choices made by a previous generation."Lyn Gardner, "Pandora's Box – review", The Guardian, 15 May 2012. Another of several positive notices came from Sarah Lewis of the Hackney Citizen, who described the play as "At times laugh out loud funny, at times heartbreaking....essentially a very moving and funny play. Excellent."Sarah Lewis, "Pandora’s Box – review", Hackney Citizen, 22 May 2012. Pandora's Box is published by Oberon Books.Pandora's Box () at Oberon Books."Pandora's Box" (Oberon Modern Plays) at Amazon.
East End Boys, West End Girls In 2015, Solanke made her directorial debut with her second play, East End Boys, West End Girls, in a London tour that began at the Arcola TheatreLyn Gardner, "Plan your week's theatre: top tickets", The Guardian, 27 July 2015. before playing in venues including CLF Arts Cafe in Peckham, the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea, and the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham."British-African Theatre And Film Company Launches New Play" , The Voice, 30 July 2015. Reviews variously described the play as "a grim view of a vast and disparate city...occasionally quite sweet and always earnest"Tim Bano, "East End Boys, West End Girls" (review), Time Out, 30 July 2015. and "thought-provoking.... It goes beyond mere entertainment and poses some knotty but ever pertinent questions. The artful Solanke handles the social commentary with sensitivity and intelligence."Tolita, "Theatre Review: ‘East End Boys, West End Girls’ by Ade Solanke", 8 August 2015.
The Court Must Have a Queen Solanke's latest play is The Court Must Have a Queen about Henry VIII's marriage to Anne of Cleves. It features African Tudor musician John Blanke, who played in the courts of both Henry VII and Henry VIII and is the first black person for whom there is both an image and a record in the UK. The play was commissioned by Historic Royal Palaces and produced by Hampton Court Palace. It premiered in June 2018, performed in the Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace, where Shakespeare's acting company the King's Men performed in 1603.
Other projects Solanke is also developing a project and play about Phillis Wheatley entitled Phillis in London, which was showcased at the Greenwich Book Festival in 2018."Students meet literary world at Greenwich Book Festival", News, University of Greenwich, 14 June 2018. A 90-minute play by Solanke titled Phillis in Boston was presented at the Old South Meeting House in November 2023."Phillis in Boston", Revolutionary Spaces, 1 November 2023.
Solanke is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa edited by Margaret Busby.Ladee Hubbard, "Power to define yourself: The diaspora of female black voices", TLS, 10 May 2019.Olatoun Williams, "New Daughters of Africa" at Borders, 2019."Representing Africa with the New Daughters" , British Library, 23 October 2020.
Works Theatre Pandora's Box (2012) East End Boys, West End Girls (2015) The Court Must Have a Queen (2018)
Film The Family Legacy (2009) Dazzling Mirage (2014)
Awards and recognition In 1989, Ade Solanke was named London's Top Youth Entrepreneur for her writing and media business, Tama Communications. In September 2012 she won the award for Best Playwright at the Nigerian Entertainment and Lifestyle Awards."Winner: Best Playwright, Nigerian Entertainment and Lifestyle Awards, Sept 2012" , Spora Stories. She also won Best Playwright at the Afro-Hollywood Awards.
During the 2012 London Olympics she was featured along with other writers, including Diran Adebayo, Sefi Atta, Helon Habila, Zainabu Jallo, Nnorom Azuonye, Chibundu Onuzo, and Rotimi Babatunde, at the Nigeria House Literature Showcase curated by the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA) at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East."Olympics 2012 Culture Splash: Meet Nigerian Authors, Books At Royal Theatre, StratFord East, London", Egg of Odumare's Eyes, 28 July 2012."For Olympics, CORA Parades Nigerian Authors In London", The Guardian (Nigeria), 22 July 2012. 2012: Pandora's Box Winner, Best Playwright, Afro-Hollywood Awards 2012: Pandora's Box Winner, Best Play, Nigerian Entertainment and Lifestyle (NEL) Awards 2012: Pandora's Box nominated for Best New Play for the Offie 2014: Pandora's Box nominated for the 2014 Nigeria Prize for Literature. 2015: East End Boys, West End Girls Winner, Best Play at the 7th Black Entertainment, Film, Fashion, Television and Arts Awards."East End Boys, West End Girls nominated for Best Script, 2015 BEFFTA AWARDS!", Spora Stories. 2015: Pandora's Box and East End Boys, West End Girls nominated for the 2015 Alfred Fagon Audience Award.Matthew Hemley, "Hang and Play Mas shortlisted for Alfred Fagon Audience Award", The Stage, 1 September 2015."Double theatre award nomination for lecturer" , Faculty of Architecture, Computing & Humanities, University of Greenwich, 27 November 2015. 2016: Presented with the Professor Robert Boucher Distinguished Alumni Award by University of Sheffield."Acclaimed writer receives Distinguished Alumni Award", Alumni, University of Sheffield, 26 July 2016.
Solanke is also the recipient of various academic scholarships and literary awards, including: 1992: Fulbright Scholarship 1993: Phi Beta Kappa International Scholarship 1993: Association of American University Women (AAUW) Scholarship 1994: Norman Topping Scholarship (USC) 2001: Royal Literary Fund Fellowship (BFI writer-in-residence) 2010: Pinter Centre AHRC artist-in-residence, Goldsmiths, University of London 2010: Peggy Ramsay Award 2013: Peggy Ramsay Award
Further reading Morosetti, Tiziana (2018). "Interview with Ade Solanke". In: Morosetti, T. (ed.), Africa on the Contemporary London Stage. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 7 December 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94508-8_11