“I trip over words in English. I trip over words in Igbo.
Sometimes it feels like my tongue fails me.”
Tasha needs to tell us a story. About her life, the North West London flat where she grew up, and the houseplants she can’t keep alive. Suddenly, the distance between herself and the generations of green-fingered Igbo women that came before her feels greater than ever.
The Storyteller cuts in – she has a story to tell too. The story of Eze and the Kola tree. A story she needs us to hear. Especially now, when the tree is struggling to survive and the fruit that holds the memories of its people dating back centuries could be lost forever.
Through immersive storytelling, dance and song, The Kola Nut Does Not Speak English is a glorious celebration of self-discovery written and performed by Tania Nwachukwu (The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, Arcola) that celebrates African theatre practices and proudly embraces the power of telling your own story.
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Bella Kear graduated LAMDA in July 2021 with a First-Class Honours Degree in Production and Technical Arts.
Credits as a Sound Designer include: Invisible, Clutch, Elephant and The Kola Nut Does not Speak English (Bush Theatre); The Animal Kingdom (Hampstead); The Night Woman (Other Palace); First Love is the Revolution (East15); The Faith Machine (RADA); Pelican Daughters, Education, Education, Education (ArtsEd); Darling (Hope).
Credits as an Associate Sound Designer include: Newsies (Troubadour Wembley Park); Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner (Swedish Transfer); Edith (The Lowry); Purple Snowflakes (Royal Court); Blue/Orange (Theatre Royal Bath); A Place For We (Park).
Cara Evans (she/her/they) graduated from the RCSSD with first class honours in 2019. Cara is an associate director at OPIA Collective and a reader at the Royal Court.
Theatre includes: as Designer or Co-Designer, The Living Newspaper (Royal Court); Sirens (Mercury Colchester Studio); Get Dressed! (Unicorn); Queer Upstairs (Royal Court); SK Shlomo: Breathe (Royal Albert Hall); Bright Half Life (King’s Head); Blanket Ban (New Diorama/Underbelly); Ordinary Miracle (NYT Studio); Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon (Southwark); The Woman Who Turned Into A Tree/Refuge (New Nordics Festival/Jackson’s Lane); The Girl with Glitter in her Eye (Bunker); as Associate Designer for Chloe Lamford, Teenage Dick (Donmar School’s Tour).
DK Fashola is an award-winning multidisciplinary performer and theatre maker who specialises in multi-form storytelling; fusing poetic multi-layered text & movement in unexpected ways. She has worked with Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Exchange Manchester, National Youth Theatre, GDIFestival, Theatre 503, & Orange Tree Theatre. Artistic Director of Initiative.dkf – Albany Theatre’s 2021 Artists of change, Eclipse Award Winners 2020, and creators of Melanin Box Festival. Other Work includes Music Video choreography for Grammy Award Winning artist Wizkid and international superstars DJ Spinall & Tiwa Savage.
Ewa Dina is a director, facilitator, actor & poet. She is currently associate director at Nouveau Riche. As a facilitator, Ewa has worked for Company Three, The Kiln Theatre and more. Music and movement are integral parts of Ewa’s process.
Recent Credits include:
As Assistant Director: Much Ado about Nothing (RSC); The Long Song assisting Charlotte Gwinner (Chichester Festival Theatre); …and breathe assisting Miranda Cromwell (Almeida).
As Director: No More Mr Nice Guy (Camden’s Peoples Theatre); Her Naked Skin (Rose Bruford).
Ewa was Curator of Pleasence Fringe Future’s Festival Week One: The Future is Noir.
As an actor, Ewa trained on the Rose Bruford BA Acting course. Credits include: Little Miss Burden (BBC Radio 4) and Fringe First winner Silkworm (Assembly Roxy).
Giulia Mazzoccanti is a London based stage manager, originally from Italy. She has a background in scenic art and she graduated in Stage and Events Management from the Rose Bruford College in 2022. She is fond of new writing, opera and ballet.
Her recent credits include: Armida (Wexford Opera Festival); Eugene Onegin (Opera Holland Park); and 24 Italian Songs and Arias (Battersea Arts Centre).
Ruth Burgon is a graduate of LAMDA and primarily works in new writing. Credits as Production Manager include Never Not Once (Park); BACK UP! (Bush Theatre); Nora, Let the Right One In (LAMDA). As Props Supervisor: Old Bridge (Bush Theatre). Stage Management credits include: Black is the Colour of My Voice (Seabright Productions); Coming Clean (King’s Head); Six (Bunker Theatre).
Tania Nwachukwu is an Igbo performer, writer and educator, born and raised in London. She is the co-founder of Black in the Day, a member of Octavia Poetry Collective and a Barbican Young Poets alumna. She trained at Mountview where she received her MA in Performance (Acting). She is a visiting lecturer at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and Mountview. Previous work includes: The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives (Arcola); All The Places We Could Travel (Derby); The Irregulars (Netflix).
