Amber Grappy (Rey), Aliyah Odoffin (Shan), Bukky Bukray (Funmi) and Shayde Sinclair (Elle) in SLEEPOVA by Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini at Bush Theatre. Photo by Helen Murray.
‘You can’t help but fall in love with this joyous, exuberant show.’ ★★★★ Evening Standard
‘We don’t get to choose when we become women, y’know?’
Join Rey, Elle, Shan and Funmi. Armed with sugary snacks, school gossip, and secret questions they can only ask each other, their sleepovas are pretty much a sacred space for them
As each year tugs them further into adulthood and life doesn’t pan out quite as they imagined, they struggle to hold on to a friendship that they swore would last a lifetime. Sleepova is an ode to black women, their boundless spirits, and wild dreams. A new Bush Theatre commission from Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini (Little Miss Burden), directed by Jade Lewis (Quarter Life Crisis, Bridge Theatre).
★★★★ ‘Exhilarating. The genius of this play is its ensemble.’ The Guardian
Sleepova marks the stage debut of three actresses including BAFTA Rising Star Award winner Bukky Bakray (Rocks). Completing the cast are Amber Grappy (HBO’s The Baby), Aliyah Odoffin (BBC’s Everything I Know About Love) and Shayde Sinclair (professional debut).
★★★★ ‘A tonic, whether you’re a teenager or just want to be one again.’ The Times ★★★★ Liam O’Dell
★★★★★ All That Dazzles ★★★★ Rendition
★★★★ Time Out ★★★★ The Stage
Access Adjusted Performances
All performances of Sleepova will be in a Relaxed Environment. This means you are welcome to respond to the show in whatever way feels natural, you can come in and out during the performance and a chill-out space will available in our Script Library.
There are two Sensory Adapted performances, where we keep lights on in the audience area and reduce sensory triggers like loud noises, smoke effects and flashing lights.
There are also Captioned and Audio Described performances scheduled. For more information on access adjusted performances, including Relaxed, Captioned and Audio Described performances, please click here.
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Sleepova Pre-Show Information
Apoorva Anagalli is a theatre practitioner from India specialising in theatre direction and acting. Currently, she is pursuing M.A. Theatre Making at the University of Kent, Canterbury. She is a recipient of the prestigious Charles Wallace India Trust Scholarship. She received her theatre training at the famed National School of Drama in India. Along with theatre she is also trained in Indian classical dance form Bharatanatyam and Carnatic classical music. She has experience of directing 10 plays in Indian (Hindi and Kannada) languages.
Cara Evans (she/her/they) graduated from the RCSSD with first class honours in 2019. Cara is an associate director at OPIA Collective and a reader at the Royal Court.
Theatre includes: as Designer or Co-Designer, The Living Newspaper (Royal Court); Sirens (Mercury Colchester Studio); Get Dressed! (Unicorn); Queer Upstairs (Royal Court); SK Shlomo: Breathe (Royal Albert Hall); Bright Half Life (King’s Head); Blanket Ban (New Diorama/Underbelly); Ordinary Miracle (NYT Studio); Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon (Southwark); The Woman Who Turned Into A Tree/Refuge (New Nordics Festival/Jackson’s Lane); The Girl with Glitter in her Eye (Bunker); as Associate Designer for Chloe Lamford, Teenage Dick (Donmar School’s Tour).
Deirdre O’Halloran is the Literary Manager at the Bush Theatre, working to identify and build relationships with new writers, commission new work and guide plays to the stage.
At the Bush she’s dramaturged plays including Olivier Award winners Baby Reindeer by Richard Gadd and The P Word by Waleed Akhtar, Lava by Benedict Lombe and An Adventure by Vinay Patel.
Deirdre was previously Literary Associate at Soho Theatre, where she worked as a dramaturg on plays including Girls by Theresa Ikoko and Fury by Phoebe Eclair-Powell. She led on Soho Theatre’s Writers’ Lab programme and the biennial Verity Bargate Award.
As a freelancer, Deirdre has also been a reader for Out of Joint, Sonia Friedman Productions and Papatango.
Enric Ortuño is a Spanish Fight and Intimacy Director based in the UK. He is a certified Stage Combat teacher by the British Academy of Stage and Screen Combat, a certified Intimacy Director by Intimacy Directors and Coordinators USA and holds an MA in Movement Studies from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
He is a resident teacher at Italia Conti Acting School and regularly teaches at RADA, Central School of Speech and Drama and Drama Studio London, and has taught workshops in Spain, the USA, Canada and Germany.
Fight and Intimacy credits for theatre include the National Theatre of Scotland, National Youth Theatre, National Theatre Connections, Nottingham Playhouse, Orange Tree Theatre, King’s Head Theatre, Arcola Theatre, Ovalhouse, Trafalgar Studios, and Theatre 503 amongst others.
Intimacy Coordination credits include productions for and by Warner Bros, Apple TV, BBC, Netflix, Channel 4, Amazon Studios and Sky TV.
Gabrielle Nimo has worked with Talawa Theatre Company and Emergency Exit Arts on Creating Routes, a training programme for facilitators. Since then she has taken on a number of roles including Dance Captain for Everything That Rises Must Dance (Complicité Theatre), Movement Director for Nouveau Riche’s TIMBUKTU (Gerry’s Cafe, Theatre Royal Stratford East), Director of Harrow Arts Centre Youth Theatre and most recently, Movement Director for Unknown Rivers (Hampstead Theatre).
Alongside her work in theatre, Gaby currently teaches Movement at Foundation, BA (Hons) and MA Level in Drama Schools.
Since graduating from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in 2020, Imogen Brown has specialised in Costume Designing/Supervising and Wardrobe Management for theatre and film.
Her past projects include Costume Designer/Supervisor for the feature film Venice at Dawn, dressing for Birmingham Royal Ballet, working with the Royal Court as Costume Assistant and the National Youth Theatre, Mountview and the Actor’s Touring Company as Costume Supervisor. In 2021 she also worked as a fashion assistant for designer Harris Reed on multiple projects including their debut collection For Now, Unexplained, Olly Alexander for The Brits 2021 and Iman for the 2021 Met Gala. Most recently, she worked as Wardrobe Assistant and Lead Dresser for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Jade Lewis was a Boris Karloff Trainee Assistant Director at the Young Vic, a Creative Associate at the Gate Theatre and held an International Residency in Thailand in 2018. Jade most recently wrote and directed Get Dressed! at the Unicorn Theatre, a short film for the TWENTY TWENTY project with the Young Vic, Quarter Life Crisis at the Bridge Theatre, co-created an original audio series World Of Curls with the writer Yolanda Mercy for BBC Radio 4, and directed an audio drama NSA which was a part of Talawa Tales for also BBC Radio 4. Jade is the Carne Literary Associate at Theatre503.
Jude plays the titular role in the feature film Eyimofe which premiered at Berlin film festival. Other film credits include Beasts Of No Nation (dir Cary Fukunaga), The Tempest, Touched By A Stranger, Sahara and A World Apart and the forthcoming Disney remake of The Little Mermaid.
Jude’s television appearances include Gangs of London (Sky Atlantic), Fortitude (Amazon), In The Long Run (Sky One) and The Crown (Netflix) Other TV credits include Manhunt, Chewing Gum, Friday Night Dinner, Cucumber and the UK version of Law & Order.
Having trained at RADA, Jude has performed in productions including Inua Ellams’ Three Sisters (National Theatre), The Convert (The Young Vic), Moon On A Rainbow Shawl (NT), The Faith Machine (Royal Court), Great Expectations (English Touring Theatre) and Othello (Glasgow Citizens). He most recently appeared at The Donmar in Henry V with Kit Harrington.
Laura is a freelance Lighting Designer who trained at LAMDA as a recipient of the William and Katherine Longman Charitable Trust Scholarship. Often working in new writing, Laura’s work is led by story, whilst also offering bold, atmospheric designs. For Bush Theatre: Invisible, Clutch, Elephant, The Kola Nut Does Not Speak English.
Lighting Designer credits include: Snow Queen (Polka Theatre), Black Is… (New Diorama), Brassic FM (Gate Theatre), Salty Irina (Paines Plough), Exodus (National Theatre Scotland), Faun (Cardboard Citizens), The Beach House (Park 90), Manorism (Southbank Centre), Dead Air (Stockroom), Moreno (Theatre 503), Dismissed, Juniper & Jules, SPLINTERED, curious (Soho Theatre). Assistant Lighting Designer credits include: Amadigi (English Touring Opera), and Constellations (Donmar/West End).
Lucy Ventham is a London based Stage Manager who frequently works on new writing. Her most recent credits include ENG-ER-LAND (Arcola Theatre) Sleepova (Bush Theatre), the world premiere of On The Ropes (Park/The Production Exchange), the nationwide tour of Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me (Paines Plough), the South West outdoor tour of Estella (Theatre6) and Mohand and Peter (PYSCHEdelight at Southwark Playhouse). She has worked for various off West End venues including Southwark Playhouse, Park Theatre and Kiln Theatre.
Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini (she/they) is an award-winning, bionic playwright and screenwriter of Nigerian heritage from London. Matilda was awarded a scholarship from BAFTA and Warner Bros to study a Masters in Playwriting & Screenwriting. Matilda was selected as a ‘Star of Tomorrow’ 2020 by Screen Daily Magazine, a feature film screenplay they co-wrote with Gabriel-Bisset Smith was selected as part of The Brit List 2020 and they were an Arts Foundation Futures Award 2021 Finalist.
As a playwright, Matilda has had residencies with Sphinx Theatre, English Touring Theatre, Soho Theatre, BBC Writersroom, Graeae Theatre, and the National Theatre Studio. Matilda’s debut play Muscovado was produced by BurntOut Theatre, premiered in October 2014 and subsequently co-won the Alfred Fagon Audience Award. Their audio drama The Grape that Rolled Under the Fridge was broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Matilda’s next play Little Miss Burden was produced by Harts Theatre Company and the Bunker Theatre; it premiered at the Bunker Theatre in 2019, was a finalised for an OffWestEnd Award for Best New Play, won a Popcorn Finalist Award 2020 and was published by Concord Theatricals.
Screen credits include: BAFTA TV-nominated CripTales for BBC America and BBC4; Unprecedented series, Headlong & Century Films for BBC4; Head Over Wheels, a short film produced by Open Sky Theatre and Wrapt Films which won two awards at the 2021 Digital Culture Network Awards; and MO <3 KYRA, a short film produced by Film4 and 104 Films.
Matilda’s work has been staged at the Old Vic Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, Royal Court Theatre, Bush Theatre, Soho Theatre, Arcola Theatre, Bunker Theatre, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, Royal Exchange Manchester, Hackney Showroom and Vaults Festival.
Matilda has screen projects in development with BBC Films, Home Team, Ardimages UK and Raw TV.
Pete Rickards is an experienced Production Manager and Technical Consultant within the performing arts industries. He has undertaken numerous technical and design roles across multiple disciplines alongside production management, meaning he is well placed to understand the complexity of roles within the production team.
Pete has managed shows throughout the UK and Europe for over a decade at venues including The Roundhouse, Hackney Empire, Schaubühne (Berlin), Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Soho Theatre, Liverpool Everyman, Battersea Arts Centre, Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham O2 Academy, and Nottingham Playhouse.
Pete has also designed, built and run immersive experiences for clients, including Merlin Entertainment and The Tussauds Group.
He has toured and worked with musicians and artists worldwide for many years, including: Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Shit Theatre, B Team, Sikth, We are The Ocean and Mallory Knox.
Theatre credits for the Bush include: House of Ife.
Romarna Campbell’s storytelling begins with the drums. The nomadic spirit of this exciting drummer, producer and composer lives in her jazz and hip hop-infused music. Her irrepressible energy can be heard on Inherently Political, a super-charged sonic assault on racism that immediately won favour with Anne Frankenstein, Jazz FM’s Tony Minvielle and had her crowned by Jamz Supernova as New Name of the Week.
Her independently-released kaleidoscopic debut 25 Songs For My 25th Birthday features Soweto Kinch, Tomeka Reid, Sumi Tonooka and Lady Sanity and takes us deeper into her world of resonant frequencies and conscious vibrations.
Having honed her craft with Berklee College of Music, Tomorrow’s Warriors and the Notebenders, Romarna stands on the shoulders of giants and is drawing inspiration from the view as she beats a path forward that is very much her own.
Sophie Haliburn trained at Rose Bruford College in Stage Management
Assistant Stage Management Theatre Credits include Sleepover (Bush Theatre), Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me (Kiln Theatre), Bridgerton (Secret Cinema), Wife Of Willesden (Kiln Theatre), NW Trilogy (Kiln Theatre), The Invisible Hand (Kiln Theatre).
Props Assistant Theatre Credits include Billy Elliot (Leicester Curve), Madhouse (Ambassadors), Oklahoma (Young Vic),Translations (National Theatre), Ocean At The End Of The Lane (National Theatre), Orpheus and Eurydice (London Coliseum), The Mask Of Orpheus (London Coliseum), A Taste of Honey (Tour) (National Theatre), Mr.Gum And The Dancing Bear – The Musical! (National Theatre), If Not Now When? (New Views) (National Theatre), Anna (National Theatre), Downstate (National Theatre)
Wabriya King is the Associate Dramatherapist at the Bush Theatre. Wabriya’s practice is to create a space and a format to hold people safely while they navigate their experiences in relation to the theatre’s work. Wabriya has previously worked on productions at Soho Theatre, Theatre Roayl Stratford East, Hampstead Theatre, Royal Court, National Theatre and Paines Plough.
Credits for the Bush include: Shifter’s, Paradise Now!; The P Word; House of Ife; Red Pitch; Overflow; Lava; The High Table.
Xana is a freestyle live loop musician, sound artist, vibrational sound designer, archival audio producer, audio researcher, spatial audio installation artist and theatremaker. Xana also develops accessible sound systems for spaces, is an sound arts facilitator and is a music tech lead at music research and development label Inventing Waves.
Theatre credits for the Bush: Strange Fruit, The P Word.
Theatre: Everyday (Definitely Theatre, NDT), Who Killed My Father (Tron Theatre), The Trials, Marys Seacole (Donmar Warehouse), …cake (Theatre Peckham), Sundown Kiki, Changing Destiny, Fairview, Ivan and the Dogs (Young Vic), as british as a watermelon (Contact Theatre), Burgerz (Hackney Showroom).
