Book description
Kwaku Mackenzie, founder of a Black policy think tank, hits the bottle
after his father's death. As media interest in the once dynamic
Institute fades, his team grows fractious and then, disastrously, he
favours a young Oxford scholar over his own devastated son. When, in a
vain attempt to regain influence, he publicly champions division within
the Black community, the consequences are shattering. Kwame Kwei-Armah's
third play for the National Theatre opens in November 2007 and takes a
punchy, provocative look at the Black British experience and the need,
or not, for solidarity. Kwame Kwei-Armah won the Peggy Ramsay award
for his first play, Bitter Herb (1998), which was subsequently put on by
The Bristol Old Vic, where he also became writer-in-residence. In 2003
The National Theatre produced the critically acclaimed Elmina's Kitchen
for which in 2004 he won The Evening Standard and Charles Wintor Awards
for Most Promising Playwright, and was nominated for a Laurence Olivier
award for Best New Play 2003. The National Theatre commissioned and
produced a second play, Fix Up, in 2005.
