cheeky little brown

By Nkenna Akunna

How do you break up with your best friend?

“When you’ve known someone basically your whole life,
Since you were five,
And you know all the same people,
And everyone you know knows you as one special Thing,
Sister-friends.”

Meet Lady, a determined sharp-tongued charmer who loves her best friend Gemma as much as she loves a late-night kebab. It’s Gemma’s birthday party. The two haven’t seen each other for six months.

cheeky little brown, by the Papatango Prize-winning playwright Nkenna Akunna (Some of Us Exist in the Future), is a failed night out, a musical, a show about heartbreak and queerness, taking place on a journey through the city Lady calls home.

With original songs, this coming-of-age story examines a friendship between two Black women, on diverging paths of self-love and acceptance.

A tiata fahodzi, Belgrade Theatre & Bristol Old Vic co-production

Original photograph by Myah Jeffers

Cast and Creative Team

Writer Nkenna Akunna

Director Chinonyerem Odimba

Performer Tiajna Amayo

Designer Aldo Vazquez

Lighting Designer Jodie Underwood

Sound Designer Esther Kehinde Ajayi

Music Arrangement & Production Rafay Rashid & Dennis Ryan

Vocal Coach Abdul Shyllon