Mojisola Adebayo’s STARS: An Afrofuturist Space Odyssey returns to London following outstanding 5-star responses to its premiere at the ICA in 2023, for which it won the Off West End Theatre Award (Offie) for Best New Play and nominations for Best Lead Performance and Best Video Design.
The Brixton House revival includes the original cast of Debra Michaels, acclaimed for her tour-de-force performance in the role of Mrs (alongside a multitude of other characters) and Bradly Charles, who DJs live on stage through as Mrs’ son. They are reunited with original creative team members including director Gail Babb, designer Miriam Nabarro, animation artist Candice Purwin, music director Debo Adebayo, lighting design Nao Nagai, video consultant Gillian Tan with creative captions by Stephen Lloyd.
STARS is the joyous and uplifting story of Mrs, an older woman is search of her own pleasure – a quest that takes her from a South London council flat to outer space with dustings of African mythology and folklore. Told through one woman, a live DJ, exquisite projected animations, and creative captioning, STARS is a true marriage of multiple mediums and a celebration of Black and queer empowerment, desire, touch, and arousal. The show features the music of Sun Ra, Jamila Woods, Floating Points, and more, with the space transforming into a club night after the show on one night only, with multiple DJs and accessible for all.
Mojisola Adebayo was a finalist for the George Devine Award 2022 for STARS and won the Alfred Fagon Award 2021 for her play Family Tree. Her work for theatre also includes Oranges and Stones (for Tamasha), The Architect (written with Roy Williams and Matthew Xia), Nothello, Muhammad Ali and Me, I Stand Corrected and Moj Of The Antarctic.
A short animation film created by Mojisola with STARS creatives Candice Purwen and Debo Adebayo based on the themes of STARS premiered at the Berlinale in February 2025, produced by Tamasha, with further film festival screenings to be announced.
Brixton House | Dates: 5 – 28 June 2025 | See listing
