Zawe Ashton has described her play as both an “investigation into the fallout of colonialism” on the women of the African diaspora and an exploration of what it means to be a black woman in Britain today.

Our bodies are over-policed, exoticised and brutalised. Our minds are gaslighted and over-medicated. Our existence is constantly questioned. If we object to this treatment, if we plead or demand our humanity to be acknowledged, we are mostly ignored.

Zawe Ashton’s play For All the Women Who Thought They Were Mad is about this experience. Her words are weighted with respect for these women, her play an illustration of all of the above, and more. It’s easy to get lost in this scattered narrative but this feels intentional – a reflection of that reality.

Her script uses dreamlike sequences and non-realist dialogue to create a seemingly ordinary world that is skewed and bent to hark back to other times and dimensions. It skitters from past to present, from the living to the dead, from the individual to the collective.

It is a profoundly original and ambitious way to approach the subject of inherited intergenerational trauma and the toxic legacy of racial oppression. 

The play runs from Monday 21st October, until the Saturday 9th November 2019.

Show times vary from 2 PM till 8 PM. For more information and to book your ticket visit Hackney Showroom

Directed by Jo McInnes
Designed by Natalie Pryce & ULTZ
Associate Director Gail Babb
Lighting Designer Kevin Treacy
Sound Designer Tony Gayle
Composer Dan Batters
Movement Director Leah Muller

Cast: Mina Andala, Jumoké Fashola, Layo-Christina Akinlude, Janet Kumah, Jennifer Dixon, Joy Elias-Rilwan, Michael Fitzgerald.

And introducing: Elena Coleman, Chiamara Nwosu and Rae Ann Quayle.

Age Guidance 14+
Approx 90 mins, no interval