This month, Brixton House will be handing over the keys to eight London artists for two weeks to play and reimagine the theatre space as a world of their own.
The inaugural Housemates Festival, the first to be held in Brixton House since it moved into its new purpose-built state of the art home in the heart of Brixton in February this year takes place from the 21 April to 6 May.
The event reflects the venue’s commitment to working with new independent artists and has been created to spotlight their work and celebrate the stories that have been in development over the past two years.
The multi-artform line-up will be an explosion of experimental live theatre, comedy, spoken word and dance. Themes explored include journeys of self-discovery in drama’s by Winnie Arhin in Big Girl Words and also in Shakira Newton’s Things I Can Laugh About Now; Dance mixed with words and music create a powerful alchemy in both Sonny Nwachukwu’s choreopoem Saturn Returns and Caitlin Barnett’s Comrades in the Dark; British Comedy Guide Pro Performance Awards runner-up 2021, Suchandrika Chakrabarti’s I Miss Amy Winehouse goes big on nostalgia and partying hard; Queer identity and belonging feature in the semi-autobiographical Concha by Carly Fernandez; and For The Love Of A Primary Caregiver by Cheryl May Ndione looks at a toxic bond between a mother and daughter. Closing the festival is Corey Bovell’s Chicken Burger N Chips. More than just an ode to Morely’s, Bovell’s fast-paced witty story is about gentrification and its impact on the lives of its youths in South London. Directed by Almeida Theatre Resident Director T.D Moyo.
Artistic Director and Joint CEO Gbolahan Obisesan comments: “Housemates festival was born out of our open Housecall. Many artists had made work prior to or during the pandemic and very much wanted to find a home for their efforts and stories to be seen and appreciated. A number of these artists have been chosen and curated for this inaugural event in celebration of our wider artistic communities sharing distinctive experiences that we believe will speak to Brixton House audiences.
We have high hopes for the journey these pieces will go on and hopefully amongst them will be returning titles in our programme. We hope the festival will grow in the future beyond our building as a Brixton wide showcase of ambitious emerging artists with new work, new narratives and new forms of storytelling that speaks to our communities and intergenerational audiences for years and reveals a new canon from Brixton House. “
For the full line up go to: https://brixtonhouse.co.uk/housemates-festival
