The Ryan Calais Cameron Season continues this autumn at Broadway Theatre, Catford, with two new productions from emerging playwrights Demi Wilson-Smith and Kaleb D’Aguilar.
Following the sold-out success of Justice Ezi’s Last Goal Wins in July, the groundbreaking initiative, created by Olivier Award-nominated writer Ryan Calais Cameron in partnership with Broadway Theatre, will present Cranes from 23 September to 4 October and How To Keep Warm In Winter from 14 to 25 October.
Written and performed by Demi Wilson-Smith, Cranes is a powerful exploration of activism, identity, adulthood and the criminal justice system, inspired by the writer’s own experience of attending a protest and finding herself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The production is directed by award-winning director Merle Wheldon, with movement direction by Theophilus O. Bailey.
Set in 2010, the play follows eighteen-year-old Summer, who dreams of becoming a photographer but becomes swept up in her first protest against rising student fees.
Throwing herself into activism, Summer believes she is witnessing a moment that will change the world. Instead, the experience transforms her own life in ways she never anticipated.
The season concludes with How To Keep Warm In Winter, written and directed by Kaleb D’Aguilar, receiving its first-ever staging after being longlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award.
Described as a Caribbean love story set against the adversity of 1970s London, the drama follows Jamaican newlyweds Irene and Everton as they navigate racism, economic hardship and life in a rapidly changing Britain.
Set during the fuel crisis and Prime Minister Edward Heath’s Three-Day Week, the play explores migration, race, family and the challenges of building a future in an unfamiliar country.
D’Aguilar said: “Times are changing, and we’re coming out of the Windrush Generation and entering the Rebel era of Caribbean young people unwilling to “just get on with it”.”
The Ryan Calais Cameron Season was established to address what organisers describe as a crisis in the writing sector by supporting early-career Black and Global Majority writers from Lewisham.
The fully funded programme provides mentorship, dramaturgical support and development opportunities, while also offering each writer a dedicated 12-performance run at Broadway Theatre’s Studio space.
Ryan Calais Cameron said: “Growing up in Lewisham, the Broadway Theatre was the place that sparked my creative imagination. To establish this season is a dream come true, but more importantly, it’s a structural necessity. We are facing a massive crisis in the writing sector, and we risk losing an entire generation of vital Global Majority, working-class voices if we don’t build doors for them to walk through. The response to our first production proved exactly that; Justice’s play Last Goal Wins, provided incredible momentum and I cannot wait for audiences to see what Demi and Kaleb have created. These are phenomenal talents capturing deep resilience, and their stories deserve to be heard.”
The initiative is delivered by principal producer Carmel O’Connor and producer Nina Cavaliero, with funding from Arts Council England and Lewisham Council.
Listings and ticket information can be found here.
