Shiloh Coke (Beth) in 'Chiaroscuro' at the Bush Theatre © Johan Persson
I want to find it all now
know our names know the others in history
so many women have been lost at sea
so many stories have been swept away
Chiaroscuro: (noun) the treatment of light and shade in drawing and painting.
Four women take up their instruments. The recording light switches to on.
Aisha, Yomi, Beth and Opal couldn’t be more different, but they’re all looking for an answer to the same question. Does it lie in Aisha’s childhood? Or in Beth and Opal’s new romance? Who will tell them who they really are?
Soulful live music and spoken word collide in this bold reimagining of Scottish National Poet Jackie Kay’s 1986 masterpiece. Directed by Lynette Linton (Sweat, Richard II), Chiaroscuro is a celebration of queer women of colour across generations set to a breathtaking score by Shiloh Coke.
Chiaroscuro is the final edition in the Passing the Baton series, following the acclaimed revivals of Winsome Pinnock’s Leave Taking (2018) and Caryl Phillips’ Strange Fruit (2019).
Annie-Lunnette Deakin-Foster is a contemporary dance theatre choreographer, maker, teacher and movement director, and was a founding member of award-winning company, C-12 Dance Theatre. Theatre Credits include:
The Bee in Me (Unicorn Theatre), You Stupid Darkness (Southwark Playhouse), The Last Noel (Old Fire Station), Pavilion (Theatr Clwyd), Chiaroscuro (Bush Theatre), On The Other Hand We’re Happy, Dexter & Winters Detective Agency (ROUNDABOUT), Aesop’s Fables (Unicorn Theatre), Grimm Tales Phillip Pullmans Collection (Unicorn Theatre), Jericho’s Rose (The Hope & Anchor), POP MUSIC (national tour), The Court Must Have a Queen (Hampton Court Palace), These Bridges (National Theatre Connections, Bush Theatre), The Little Match Girl and Other Happier Tales (Shakespeare’s Globe, National tour), The Dark Room (Theatre 503).
Theatre includes: When the Crows Visit (Kiln Theatre), Princess and the Hustler (Bristol Old Vic/tour), Black Men Walking (Scottish tour),The Trick (Bush Theatre/tour), Again (West End), An Adventure (Bush Theatre), Abigail’s Party (Hull Truck), Black Men Walking (Royal Exchange/ tour), Handbagged (West End/Tricycle Theatre), Fences (West End/Theatre Royal Bath), A Raisin in the Sun (Sheffield Crucible/tour), Ticking (West End), Play Mas (Orange Tree), Chasing Rainbows and Female Parts (both at Hoxton Hall), The Invisible Hand, Ben Hur, A Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes, The House That Will Not Stand, The Colby Sisters and One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show all at the Tricycle Theatre.
Films include: Samuel’s Trousers, Bruce, Gypsy’s Kiss, The Knot, High Tide, What We Did On Our Holiday (children), Common People, Tezz, Final Prayer, Love/Loss, Zero Sum, 10by10. Television includes: Outnumbered (children) Just Around the Corner (children), Dickensian (children), Inside the Mind of Leonardo.
Jackie Kay was born and brought up in Scotland. The Adoption Papers (Bloodaxe) won the Forward Prize, a Saltire prize and a Scottish Arts Council Prize. Fiere was shortlisted for the Costa award and her novel Trumpet won the Guardian Fiction Award and was shortlisted for the IMPAC award. Red Dust Road (Picador) won the Scottish Book of the Year Award, and the London Book Award, and was shortlisted for the JR Ackerley prize. Her third collection of short stories, Reality, Reality, was praised by The Guardian as ‘rank[ing] among the best of the genre’. She was awarded an MBE in 2006, and made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2002. Her book of stories Wish I Was Here won the Decibel British Book Award.
Jackie Kay also writes for children and her book Red Cherry Red (Bloomsbury) won the Clype award. She has written extensively for stage and television. Her plays, Manchester Lines (produced by Manchester Library Theatre) and The New Maw Broon Monologues (produced by Glasgay), were a great success. Her most recent collection, Bantam, was published in 2017 to critical acclaim. She is Chancellor of the University of Salford and Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University.
Jackie Kay was named Scots Makar—the National Poet for Scotland—in March 2016.
Lynette Linton has been Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre since 2019. Her first season was a series of ground-breaking debuts from UK and Irish writers. She was previously Resident Assistant Director at the Donmar Warehouse and Associate Director at the Gate Theatre.
Lynette directed the UK premiere of Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-w inning play Sweat (Donmar Warehouse, Gielgud Theatre) for which she won ‘Best Director’ at the inaugural Black British Theatre awards. Sweat also won the Evening Standard award for ‘Best Play’ and was nominated for an Oliver award for ‘Best New Play’.
Her production of Richard II (Shakespeare’s Globe) which she directed with Adjoa Andoh, marked the first ever company of women of colour in a
Shakespeare play on a major UK stage. Lynette recently made her National
Theatre debut directing a new production of American writer Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky.
Additional directing credits include: Lenny Henry’s August in England, Beru Tessema’s House of Ife and Jackie Kay’s Chiaroscuro (all Bush Theatre); Assata Taught Me (Gate); Function (National Youth Theatre); This Is (ArtsEd); Naked (VAULT Festival); This Wide Night (Albany). She was also co-director on Chicken Palace (Stratford East). TV credits include: My Name is Leon (BBC), for which she was nominated for a BAFTA.
Theatre writing credits include: Hashtag Lightie (Arcola); Chicken Palace and Step (Stratford East). TV writing credits include: Look at Me (ITV).
She is co-founder of theatre and film production company Black Apron
Entertainment who produced Passages: A Windrush Celebration with the Royal Court, a project she also curated.
Shiloh is currently starring in Small Island at the National Theatre, directed by Rufus Norris on the Oliver stage. She previously appeared in Arinze Kene’s critically-acclaimed show Misty at the Bush, which transferred to the Trafalgar Studios, for which she was also an MD and Musician. Other stage credits include Emilia (Shakespeare’s Globe), The Tempest (Donmar Warehouse/ St Anne’s Warehouse New York), Julius Caesar (Donmar Warehouse) and Henry IV (Donmar Warehouse).
On screen Shiloh will soon appear in Aisling Bea’s new comedy This Way Up for Channel 4.
