16 October-17 November 2001
The Royal Shakespeare Company & The Tricycle Theatre present
Brixton Stories
by Biyi Bandele
Director
Roxana Silbert
Designer
Niki Turner
Lighting  Designer
Simon Kemp
Sound  by
Rebecca Watts
Cast  includes
Jude Akuwudike & Diane Parish
‘a stroke of genius…two actors bring Bandele’s vibrant language and characterisation to rich and engaging life…they conjure up Big Issue sellers, preachers, hecklers, cabbies, and the plain mad without ever reducing the characters to type… extremely funny’ LONDON METRO
‘an enchanting fantasy piece…Bandele’s writing has a warm glow, like a benevolent fairy tale or the early stories of V S Naipaul… irresistible’ SUNDAY TIMES
Biyi Bandele’s extraordinary 75 minute play …In its mixture of social panorama and subterranean odyssey, this remarkable two-hander is like an inventive mix of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood and Harold Pinter’s A Kind of Alaska… Jude Akuwudike and Diane Parish not only create a father – daughter relationship of Veridian intensity, but also offer a vivid evocation of Brixton street life.’ THE GUARDIAN

‘Bandele’s mind loops and loops like some wonderful stunt-kite.…Can anyone hope or dream for much more in or out of Brixton? Not really.’ THE TIMES
A preacher, heckler and soapbox philosopher debate life and religion. A busker sings the Brixton National anthem, complete with gunshots and police sirens. Triple-Johni the murderer serves his three life-sentences. Ossie, our storyteller, tries to cope with the loss of his wife, while his daughter tries to cope with losing her father. Brixton is the chaotic, enchanting, energetic setting for one man’s life.

 Brixton Stories is written by Nigerian-born but Brixton-adopted playwright Biyi Bandele. Biyi’s work includes Happy Birthday Mr Deka D (Young Vic, 1999) Two Horsemen  (Bush/Gate, Time Out Award, 1994), and the award-winning production of Oroonoko for the RSC last year, for which he received great critical acclaim