#5. WHO WAS DELE FADELE?

RUNNING WITH LIONS

Sian Carter’s debut play Running With Lions is showing at Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. Directed by Micheal Buffong and starring a dazzling cast comprising Ruby Barker, Wil Johnson, Nickcolia King-N'da, Suzette Llewellyn and Velile Tshabalala, this compelling work of theatre follows three generations of a Black British family navigating grief and mental illness.

Two taboo subjects especially to older generations, the schism in this family is with the pivotal middle generation. The way their parents deal with their tragic fates—the double helices of absence and bipolar affective disorder—with faith-based stoicism and silence. But what is not said does not simply go away; it finds avenues in parapraxis, dreamwork and, sometimes, psychosis. Charged with monologues and face-offs, this family confronts their conflicts and I love how music and memory aids resolution.

READING POETRY?

I am currently in between three poetry books—Niyi Osundare’s Green: Sighs of our Ailing Planet, K…