The play that changed my life: You meet 33 characters in Barber Shop Chronicles I believed in all of them'

"For the first five minutes or so the audience are milling around the barber shop set. You're not really sure who's an actor and who's an audience member. But there's a real sense of camaraderie, jokes and vibes you really feel part of it. The setting is not exactly domestic, not exactly business. There wasn't a raised stage so you felt invited, and then kind of zoomed, into the action."

"You meet 33 characters played by 12 actors, all black men from across six different cities: Johannesburg, Kampala, Lagos, Harare, Accra and London. It did the human detail so well, I really believed in every single one of the characters. I did not know that theatre could really fly you to these destinations, all very specific and different to one another."

"There is a central relationship, but it's threaded through lots of other conversations between people in the different barber shops across these cities. They talk about sex, marriage, queerness, capitalism, football. I hadn't known that could be put on stage, and it felt important. It wasn't centring whiteness or over-explaining things to an assumed white audience. I'm queer and non-binary and at the time I was figuring out gender stuff, so it was really affirming to see such a range of masculinity on stage."

The production stages 33 characters performed by 12 Black male actors representing Johannesburg, Kampala, Lagos, Harare, Accra and London. The set blurs audience and performance with no raised stage and mobile chairs, fostering an intimate, communal atmosphere. Scenes interweave a central relationship with many conversations across barber shops that address sex, marriage, queerness, capitalism and football. Music, choreography and rotating chairs create fluid transitions and strong theatricality. The playwright recorded hours of interviews in those cities for authentic voices and vocabularies. The work affirms diverse expressions of masculinity and resonated powerfully with a queer, non-binary viewer.

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