Talawa Stories 2024

Following a successful first series in 2021, Talawa Stories is returning to BBC Radio 4 with three fresh, powerful radio dramas in 2024. The playwrights, plays and directors have been announced, bringing their unique and exciting works to the airwaves, presented by Talawa, the UK’s outstanding Black theatre company.

The three selected playwrights are babirye bukilwa, who recently starred in BBC Three’s Dreaming Whilst Black, and will star in the channel’s hotly anticipated upcoming Domino Day; lydia luke, a finalist for the Women’s Prize for Playwrighting 2021 who recently was the assistant director for Talawa’s 2023 show Recognition; and Rashida Seriki, director of BBC Comedy’s Maneater, and writer and director on episodes of Channel 4’s We Are Lady Parts.

Rashida Seriki’s BABYDYKE is a searing exploration of youthful romance, familial responsibility and negotiating independence, dissecting the complexities of navigating repressed sexuality as a young Black Londoner. Tara’s dad thinks she loves the wrong people – but Tara, tired of pulling pints and babysitting her dad – faces a whole new reality when she falls for Phoenix.

In lydia luke’s copper & lead, an explosive secret threatens to shatter a young Black couple’s love – and bodies – forever. luke’s poetic production, set in the Midlands in 1978, offers an alternate history against the backdrop of one of the harshest winters the UK has ever seen, tackling belonging, medical negligence and disposability.

Haunting and urgent, The Master’s House by babirye bukilwa sees four women – stripped of their identities and renamed April, May, September and December – plot their escape from the master’s house and the violence of patriarchy.