A defiant and exuberant coming-of-age story follows a young girl from the playgrounds of Zimbabwe to an America that is not the utopia she imagined, in an adaptation of the novel by NoViolet Bulawayo. We Need New Names was nominated for the Booker Prize in 2013, a first for a Zimbabwean and a Black African woman, and has been adapted for stage by fellow Zimbabwean Mufaro Makubika (SHEBEEN, Alfred Fagon Award winner).
Full of humour and humanity, it follows the path of a girl dreaming of wonders away from her home country, only to find herself in a hinterland between where she was from and where she now is, belonging to and claimed by neither. We Need New Names will be performed by a six-strong cast, marking a first-time collaboration between East Midlands’ companies Fifth Word and New Perspectives, following on from New Perspectives’ Stage Award and Black British Theatre award-winning adaptation of Chigozie Obioma’s The Fishermen.
Paradise. Home of 10-year-old Darling and her friends: four children on the edge of innocence. A playground overflowing with mischief and games where they imagine countries a luxurious life away from theirs in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. But when Darling moves to Michigan, the Western world she encounters as a teenager is far from the American utopia of her dreams…
NoViolet Bulawayo was born Elizabeth Zandile Tshele in Zimbabwe. We Need New Names was her debut novel, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2013, as was her second novel Glory in 2022, making her the first Black African woman to appear on the Booker list twice. In addition, she has been long-listed for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2023 for Glory.
New Perspectives Artistic Director Angharad Jones said, “This adaptation combines New Perspectives’ history of successful commissioning adaptations including, most recently, The Fishermen, and Fifth Word’s specialism in developing new plays. Mufaro is a brilliantly talented playwright based in our home City of Nottingham, and it’s been a privilege to support him to tell this story to audiences on stages across the UK.”
Fifth Word Artistic Director Laura Ford continued, “Fifth Word are delighted to have commissioned Mufaro to develop the stage adaptation of this beautiful and powerful novel by NoViolet. During the development process, we’ve had the privilege of working with Zimbabwean-born residents across the UK, all of whom can relate closely to this story from different generational viewpoints. It speaks to so many experiences, across the generations, of migration, trying to find your identity and trying to work out where you belong. I’m so excited to see this deeply moving play come to fruition and tour to theatres across the UK, reaching audiences from a wide range of backgrounds”.
Mufaro Makubika is a playwright living and working in St Ann’s, Nottingham. Mufaro’s first play, Shebeen, opened at the Nottingham Playhouse in June 2018 and then transferred to the Theatre Royal Stratford East. Shebeen was the winner of the Alfred Fagon Award for best new play 2017. His most recent play, Malindadzimu, opened at the Hampstead Theatre in September 2021.
Monique Touko is a London-based multidisciplinary artist working in theatre, radio and film. Her most recent directing work includes Fair Play by Ella Road at the Bush Theatre and The Clinic at the Almeida Theatre. She has been assistant director on shows including Wishlist (dir. Matthew Xia), On the Exhale (dir. Christopher Haydon) and Cock (dir. Kate Hewitt) and Richard II (dir. Lynette Linton and Adjoa Andoh). We Need New Names will be the second time she’s worked with Mufaro Makubika having won Best Director at The Stage Debut Awards in 2022 for Malindadzimu.”
Mufaro Makubika said, ‘When I first read the novel I couldn’t put it down. I instantly recognised the world NoViolet Bulawayo creates and felt an urgency to adapt this impactful and beautiful story into a play. I’m excited to help share We Need New Names on stage for the first time and hope it resonates with audiences across the UK.”
New Perspectives is an East Midlands-based company with nearly 50 years’ experience of touring high-quality productions to venues of all sizes across the UK, from mid-scale theatres to village halls. With a strong rural core, they create productions to fit spaces of any size in order to bring new work that is unexpected and thought-provoking to a wide range of audiences. In 2021, Angharad Jones was appointed as their Artistic Director/CEO; assistant director of the company’s award-winning production of The Fishermen. Within the last year at New Perspectives, she has directed a script-in-hand reading of Lucy Kirkwood’s Maryland and touring productions The Great Almighty Gill (Edinburgh Festival & UK Tour 2022); The Swearing Jar (rural/ Studio UK tour). In addition, she returned to co-direct the UK revival of LAVA, including a 4- week run at Soho Theatre, for Fifth Word – the company she co-founded and ran alongside Laura Ford for fifteen years.
Fifth Word is an award-winning theatre company based in the East Midlands, founded in 2007. They develop and produce vital new plays that change how people see the world. They make work with and for younger audiences (age 14-25) and under-served communities: uncovering the stories that need to be told. With shows that tour across the UK, they collaborate with a range of communities who do not always see the arts as for them: empowering them to tell their own stories through different artistic means. They are passionate about contributing to a strong new writing culture in the Midlands and helping to discover and develop the next generation of talented playwrights in the region.
.Approx. Running Time: 1hr 50 mins | Suitable for ages 14+
Content warning: contains sensitive subject matter including references to violence and rape
28 Apr – 6 May Brixton House, London
4th Floor, Brixton House, 385 Coldharbour Ln, London SW9 8GL
Previews 28 April – 2 May
Eves 7.30m, Sat 3pm | £21, £17 concessions
brixtonhouse.co.uk | 020 7582 7680
