Nine Lives and Come To Where I'm From

(Paperback)

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NINE LIVES See over here its not like over there. Here there are neon lights. Here there are queens. Here there are rainbow flags draw high. One man and a suitcase filled with the past, uncertainty, high heels, brokenness, African dancing shells and hope. Ishmael has been outed, along with his lover, David. He has sought sanctuary in the UK, but is this evidence enough As Ishmael waits to hear his fate, he encounters new friends and enemies, all the while looking for a place to call home again. Zodwa Nyoni threads together humour and humanity to tell the real personal story behind asylum headlines. Nine Lives was developed as part of the West Yorkshire Playhouse's A Play, A Pie and A Pint programme in 2014 and received a UK national tour in 2015. COME TO WHERE I'M FROM Tongue-tied child got lost in migration. Tongue-tied child got lost in separation. Tongue-tied child got lost in assimilation. Theatre company Paines Plough's Come To Where I'm From programme offers a theatrical tapestry of the UK, woven by writers asking if home really is where the heart is. Since 2010, 88 playwrights from across the UK have returned to their home towns to write plays about the places that shaped them. This publication features Zodwa Nyoni's 2013 monologue for the series - a meditation on place, belonging and the author's Zimbabwean roots.

Reviews

A blazing new drama about people on the margins of a failing society. Zodwa Nyonis Nine Lives tells the story of Ishmael, a Zimbabwean asylum-seeker who has fled to Britain because he is gay, one of millions of victims of the new wave of extreme homophobia sweeping some African countries. In a fine 50-minute monologue . . . we watch Ishmael struggle with Britains intrusive and hostile immigration system, catch a brief glimpse of sexual freedom, and form a fragile but hopeful friendship with a young single mum he meets in the park. Nyonis interweaving of naturalism and poetry is superb, and lifts this show far beyond documentary, into unforgettable solo drama about one of the key experiences of our time. * Scotsman *
The device of revealing a life as refracted through the memories of mourners, whose characters are simultaneously revealed through their interactions, can be a cliche . . . Zodwa Nyoni exploits it with sprightly ease and emotional depth. Like another playwright and poet, JM Synge, she grippingly connects a particular situation to the universals of shared experiences through a wonderfully rich, humorous and densely poetic use of language. * Guardian on "Boi Boi is Dead" *
Gripping, humorous, poetic * Observer on "Boi Boi is Dead" *
If you think you need more than one actor and one suitcase to put on a play which journeys from Zimbabwe to Braitain, with the action shifting between parks, clubs, streets and homes, you'd be wrong. Dealing with issues of asylum and homophobia, Nine Lives by Zodwa Nyoni stands up as a great piece of theatre * Morning Star *

Author Bio

Zodwa Nyoni is a Zimbabwean-born playwright and poet based in Leeds, UK. As winner of the Channel 4 Playwrights Scheme, she was Writer-in-Residence at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2014. Her first full-length play, Boi Boi is Dead, was shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2014/15. Other theatre credits include: Tangled Roots (2014), Nine Lives (2014), Come To Where Im From (2013), The Market (2013), Di Daakes Part A Di Night (2013), Home Has Died (2012), Why The Drought Returns (2012), The Night Shift (2011) and The Povo Die Till Freedom Comes (2010). She has been the recipient of the following awards: Award for the Arts 2011 (Leeds Black Awards) and the Young Black, Asian Writers Award (The Big Issue in the North's Short Story Competition 2011), and she was shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2014/15.