Meet Aurora and Orion: Sister and Brother. Constellations in time. More than blood. More than just fam. They look after each other in their small London flat, filled with the memories of their parents’ Black Love.
When that love is threatened, they must confront their own worst fears as they find their way back to each other and to what it means to love whilst Black.
Black Love by Chinonyerem Odimba, with music by Ben and Max Ringham, is an explosion of form-busting storytelling, combining real-life stories, imagined worlds, and new songs inspired by an R&B heritage.
It was premiered in July 2021 in Paines Plough’s the Roundabout as a co-production between Paines Plough and Belgrade Theatre in association with tiata fahodzi, co-directed by Odimba and Katie Posner, as part of Coventry City of Culture 2021, before touring the UK.
Black Love won Best Musical Theatre Bookwriting at the 2022 Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Awards.
‘A refreshingly original piece of theatre, provocative but suffused with affection. It’s a celebration and a cry of pain, and it’s not like anything else currently on any London stage’
— WhatsOnStage
‘A lesson in the complexities of family relationships… manages to find humour even in the most uncomfortable of problematic comments… a powerful reminder of everyday Black existence… a beautiful ode to Black society and home’
— Guardian
‘A jubilant celebration of black culture and family ties that oozes wit and warmth… upfront and intimate: a gorgeous paean to black love… the show is a thing of beauty, playful and poetic, gliding between the spiritual and the raw, street-level daily reality… intensely moving and fiercely lovable’
— iNews
‘A powerful and very raw expression of the struggle to identify and understand what it means to be a Black family, and to share Black love together’
— Musical Theatre Review
‘A jubilant celebration of black affection and identity’
— Evening Standard
‘A true celebration of life and love’
— Broadway World
Best Musical Theatre Bookwriting – Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Awards
