A new site-specific play that puts most of its audience on a bus, When The Blackbird Sings has its world premiere in Oxford from 23 September to 11 October, directed by Erica Whyman and presented by the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities with Creation Theatre. Tickets are on sale now, from £27.50, with £5 seats for OX4 residents.
When The Blackbird Sings opens in Oxford on 23 September and runs to 11 October, with press performances on Friday 25 September. It is a world premiere, and most of it takes place on a moving bus.
Erica Whyman directs, from a script by Natty Mark Samuels, Helen Eastman and Afsaneh Gray. Eastman also co-directs, with dramaturgy by Pippa Hill. The production is presented by the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities at the University of Oxford, in collaboration with Creation Theatre, which turns 30 this year.
The route runs from Blackbird Leys through the city and ends at the Schwarzman Centre itself, which opened in April. Audiences travel from the 8th century to the 21st, and there is a walking section of about 750 metres in the middle, so it is worth knowing before booking that this is not a seated evening throughout.
The play follows Paulette, born in Jamaica and living in Oxford in 1966, and draws on the Windrush generation who settled in the city in the 1950s and 1960s. Whyman has been working with residents of Blackbird Leys and Greater Leys for three years, and the piece was developed with both academics and local people.
Charlyne Francis plays Paulette, with Ella Afghani, Joseph Akubeze, Alex Ansdell, Lydia Danistan, Tim Harker and Eloise Sheffield completing the professional company. A chorus of community volunteers plays suffragettes and nurses alongside them.
Whyman, formerly deputy artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the director of Hamnet and Ben and Imo, said: “It is an honour to be trusted with such powerful and often ignored stories. To make theatre which shifts the way we think about a place and about each other feels like important work in a world in which divisions run ever deeper. To make a show that partly happens on a moving bus is also enormous fun! Collaborating with these brilliant writers, and an ingenious creative team has embodied what this show is really about - what is possible when we truly stand together”.
Afsaneh Gray, who grew up in Oxford, said: “Working on such an ambitious and big-hearted show has been a joy. Oxford is a fascinating city with so many interesting and hidden histories. It’s been a real privilege to learn more about the city I grew up in, and to bring those stories to life through new and reimagined characters.”
Performances run Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday at 6.30pm, Friday at 11am and 6.30pm, and Sunday at 4.30pm. There is a BSL-interpreted performance on 9 October at 6.30pm, and captioned performances on 25 September at 11am, 1 October at 6.30pm and 11 October at 4.30pm.
Tickets are £27.50, with students and under-25s from £10, OX4 residents at £5 and essential companions free.
