J’OUVERT – a new play by Yasmin Joseph comes to London’s Harold Pinter Theatre from 16 June – 3 July 2021 as part of the RE:EMERGE season.
The RE:EMERGE season will create a space for vital, new voices and fresh talent in the West End and beyond, working alongside some of the industry’s greatest theatremakers and artists. The extraordinary collection of plays curated by Sonia Friedman Productions with Ian Rickson – Artistic Director for the season – tackles urgent issues integral to rebuilding our society, including structural inequality, climate change and the economics of truth in an internet age. Supported using public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England, RE:EMERGE will support the theatre-makers of the future, provide vital work for the freelance community and celebrate the live experience as we begin to build back to the full reopening of British theatre.
J’OUVERT will star Annice Boparai, Gabrielle Brooks, Sapphire Joy and Zuyane Russell.
“What people you know can party through all of the earth’s elements?”
2017. Carnival is here. The streets of Notting Hill are alive with history and amongst the pulsating soca, dazzling colour, and endless sequins and feathers, Jade and Nadine are fighting for space in a world they thought was theirs. A timely reflection on the Black British experience and sexual politics of Carnival, J’Ouvert is a piercing, hilarious and fearless story of two best friends, battling to preserve tradition in a society where women’s bodies are frequently under threat.
Yasmin Joseph is a London-based writer. Her debut play J’Ouvertpremièred at Theatre503 in 2019 and she was nominated for the Evening Standard’s Most Promising Playwright Award, and most recently won the 2020 James Tait Black Prize For Drama.
J’Ouvert will be adapted for the screen as part of BBC Lights Up, an unprecedented season of plays for BBC radio and TV, produced in partnership with theatres across the UK and continuing BBC Arts’ Culture in Quarantine initiative. The film will be screened on BBC Four on Monday 26 April at 10pm and iPlayer.
Click here for tickets to J’OUVERT at the Harold Pinter Theatre
