BLACK LOVE

Chinonyerem Odimba

Book, Lyics and Director

Chinonyerem Odimba is a Nigerian British playwright, screenwriter, and poet. Her work for theatre includes The Bird Woman of Lewisham at the Arcola; Rainy Season, and His Name is Ishmael for Bristol Old Vic; Joanne for Clean Break, and Amongst the Reeds for Clean Break and The Yard.

Her work for young people includes a modern retelling of Twist for Theatre Centre and Sweetness of a Sting for NT Connections. More recent work ranges from Medea at Bristol Old Vic, We Too, Are Giants for Kiln Theatre, Unknown Rivers at Hampstead Theatre, Prince and the Pauper at Watermill Theatre, and The Seven Ages of Patience at Kiln Theatre, and Princess & The Hustler’ which toured across the UK for Eclipse Theatre/Bristol Old Vic/HullTruck.

Her work has been shortlisted for several awards including the Adrienne Benham and Alfred Fagon awards. In 2015 her unproduced play Wild is De Wind was shortlisted to the final ten for the Bruntwood Playwriting Award. She is the winner for the 2018 Sonia Friedman Award (Channel 4 Playwright Bursary) for a new play ‘How to Walk on the Moon’. She is currently working on theatre commissions for Young Vic, Manchester Royal Exchange and Popcorn Productions. For Radio, credits include The Last flag, and Eve as part of This Is Your Country, Now series on BBC Radio 4.

As a director, Chinonyerem has worked for Bristol Old Vic, Theatre503 and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. She will be co-directing her new play Black Love for Paines Plough, as well as an audio drama for Live Theatre/BBC Radio 4 in March 2021. Chinonyerem will be directing a new play by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm for HighTide Theatre in January 2022.

Ben and Max Ringham

Music

For Kiln Theatre: NW Trilogy, The Seven Ages of Patience, Pass Over, When the Crows Visit.

Created by credit: Anna (Olivier Nomination – Best Sound 2020); Curse of the Crackles! (with Shoreditch Town Hall).

Theatre credits include: Blindness (also International Tour), Teenage Dick, Berberian Sound Studio (Donmar Warehouse); Herding Cats (Soho Theatre); Cyrano de Bergerac (Olivier Nomination – Best Sound 2020), Pinter at the Pinter, Betrayal (West End); Ugly Lies the Bone, (National Theatre); Pygmalion (UK Tour); Party Skills (Shoreditch Town Hall); The Meeting (Chichester Festival Theatre); Machinal (Almeida); Love and Information (Sheffield Theatres); Gloria (Hampstead Theatre).

Television credits include: A Christmas Carol (BBC2); Second Hand for 50 Grand (Channel 4).

Film credits include: Through the Dunes (Short); Skip Girl (Short); The Making of an Avant-Garde (Documentary Feature).

Other credits include: The Return (Podcast with ETT); Frida Kahlo – Making Herself Up (The V&A); Mirror Maze, Room 2022 (with Es Devlin); Rembrandt – The Late Works (The National Gallery); The Inspection Chamber (for Alexa, BBC Research and Development).