At the intersection of dance, theatre and visual installation, Okwui Okpokwasili’s Bronx Gothic delves into one woman’s attempt to shake loose memory. In a coming of age story of a girl in the Bronx on the cusp of a sexual awakening, what emerges is a breath-taking exploration of girlhood.
Created in collaboration with Peter Born, Bronx Gothic draws on inspiration from West African griot storytelling and the epistolary style of the Victorian novel to ask what it means to be a brown girl dreaming herself awake. Bronx Gothic was the winner of the 2014 New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award for Outstanding Production. This is the show’s UK premiere.
Okwui Okpokwasili is a 2018 MacArthur ‘Genius Award’ recipient.
Kwame Kwei-Armah, Artistic Director of the Young Vic, said: “Okwui’s painful, beautiful, meaningful and heartfelt process is profoundly moving. The show cannot be described as just theatre. It cannot be described as just dance. When I first watched a documentary which captured the backstage story of this virtuosic one-woman show told by a MacArthur Genius Award winner, I knew I just had to programme it here at the Young Vic. Bronx Gothic not only plays with form; it plays with my heart. And it is ultimately a magnificent performance.”
Bronx Gothic is at The Young Vic 1 – 29 June 2019.
