The Upsetters are taking over the Bunker Theatre for one week to present a festival dedicated to celebrating artists of colour. The Upsetters are using their takeover week to launch their first Takeover Festival.
Takeover Festival will be an annual week-long touring festival which takes over a new theatre venue each year around the country with the aim of presenting new work by artists of colour while engaging with the next generation of young theatre-makers from culturally diverse backgrounds.
The Upsetters make theatre predominantly with artists of colour as a means to address underrepresentation and misrepresentation of people of colour on and off the stage.
At the moment, The Upsetters feel there is a clear bias which they want to overcome by creating brand new opportunities for those from underrepresented backgrounds to have their work performed. Too often, people of colour are told the talent isn’t out there.
WAKES by Sidney Belony focuses on the experiences of grief and bereavement between two young Black women. Sidney is a Luton-based writer and director who has had work performed at Royal Stratford East. She creates work which explores social and political themes. WAKES will be directed by Brigitte Adela. Previous directing work includes Dutty Wine (Southwark Playhouse) and Tamasha Scratch Night (Soho Theatre).
UNBURIED by Jimin Suh tells the story of the forced transfer of a Korean family from Soviet Russia based on real events in 1937. Jimin is a South Korean actor and playwright who recently completed a masters in Writing for Performance at Goldsmith’s University. UNBURIED will be directed by Adrian Tang recently directed for Monobox Playstart (Hampstead Theatre) and THE UPSETTERS Scratch (Bunker Theatre) in June 2019.
The Upsetters are hosting a poetry night with Zia Ahmed, Tyrone Lewis and Sarah “Rain” Kolawole along with a special guest performer to be announced at a later date.
To wrap up the performances, The Upsetters will be putting their highly successful Scratch Night into the main event Saturday slot rather than hidden away on a dark day. The aim is to put emerging artists of colour front and centre to get the exposure their brilliant work deserves.
The Upsetters have already lined up five brilliant emerging directors for the Scratch Night including Kwami Odoom, Aneesha Srinivasan, Yasmin Hafesji, Rebekah Murrell and Jasmine Teo. Plays will be selected via an open callout and will be announced on 10th February 2020.
Poetry Night: 24 February, 19:30
New Writing Double Bill: 25 – 28 February, 19:30
Scratch: 29 February, 16:00 and 19:30
