Little Miss Burden - The Bunker
London theatre news: Wednesday 23 October 2019
Off-West End - Shows
Harts Theatre Company head to The Bunker in December with Matilda Ibini's vital tale of growing up with a wheelchair in the '90s - a poignant new coming-of-age story.
Image: The Bunker
Mashing together some serious '90s nostalgia, a Nigerian family in East London and Sailor Moon, Matilda Ibini's new play - Little Miss Burden - draws on her own experiences as a teenager to tell the tricky, but often funny truth about growing up with a physical impairment.
The show plays at The Bunker from 3 to 21 December 2019, directed by Debbie Hannan and presented by Harts Theatre Company.
De-mystifying the stereotypes and tropes of disabilities, Little Miss Burden provides a crucial platform for disabled people's voices, lives and stories to be heard.
This is not a triumphant tale about overcoming a disability, but rather a meaningful and refreshing story of acceptance and understanding, of love and survival.
Little Miss Burden follows a trio of sisters as Little Miss learns to understand her disability and how to live with it as part of her.
Writer Matilda Ibini elaborates ...
"The story of Little Miss Burden has been a long time coming.
It felt apt to tell the story of a black disabled woman growing up in the UK at a time when a) the government is actively decimating disabled lives via stringent cuts to benefits and welfare and b) at a time when the country is calling into question its identity and in its crisis is scapegoating immigrants.
I think the story of someone rejecting the labels and assumptions put on them is needed.
If I was ever going to write about the disabled experience it was always going to be on my own terms i.e. magical realist as fuck, brutally honest and funny, because there is always light to be found in the darkest of worlds.
And how existing at all these intersections isn't a life sentence or a tragedy but a key to freedom."
Show listing information
Synopsis
They are the coolest, fiercest, most super talentedest girl band ever assembled:
Big Sis and Little Sis are waiting for the third member of their trio to arrive.
Little Miss is on her way.
It just takes her a little bit longer.
At thirteen, Little Miss is given a gift which cannot be returned.
It's a part of her.
She has to share her body and life with it.
And she needs to find a way for the two of them to get along as they can't both be Player One.
Matilda Ibini's coming-of-age tale smashes together 90s nostalgia, Nigerian family, East London and Sailor Moon to tell the sometimes tricky, often funny truth about growing up with a physical impairment.
Cast
Saida Ahmed - Little Miss
Ani Nelson - Little Sis
Michelle Tiwo - Big Sis
Creatives
Author: Matilda Ibini
Director: Debbie Hannan
Designer: Helen Hebert
Lighting: Pete Rickards
Sound: Benjamin Grant
Movement: Phao May
Dramaturg: Jules Howarth
Production: Harts Theatre Company and The Bunker
Venue
London
SE1 1RU
Dates
From: Tuesday 3 December 2019
Closed: Saturday 21 December 2019
Tickets
Previews:
£10.00
Unwaged: £3.00 (10 per preview performance)
Standard: £16
Concessions:
£12.00
Under 30s: £10.00 (10 per performance)
Links
Show website
ActDrop full listing for Little Miss Burden
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