Kwei-Armah Plays: 1: Elmina's Kitchen; Fix Up; Statement of Regret; Let There Be Love

Description

Few playwrights have been as successful as Kwame Kwei-Armah at bringing a distinctive new voice and examination of our culture to the stage in recent years. This collection of his work includes his trilogy of plays commissioned and produced by the National Theatre between 2003 and 2008, and Let There Be Love, first produced at the Tricycle Theatre, London, in 2008. Elmina's Kitchen won him awards for most promising new playwright and was described as 'a scorching drama about the black experience in Britain's inner cities. . . there is no mistaking its raw power, humanity and urgent concern' (Daily Telegraph). Fix Up explores race and cultural roots and heritage with verve and wit, setting heritage against the inexorable march of time and change. Statement of Regret explore tensions within the Black community amid changes in the team leading an influential Black policy think-tank. The final play, Let There Be Love, was presented at the Tricycle Theatre, London, in 2008: 'a smart and possibly noble exploration of what it takes to be human and happy' Evening Standard . The volume is introduced by the author and features a chronology of his work..

Kwame Kwei-Armah won the Peggy Ramsay award for his first play, Bitter Herb (1998), and has since had three plays commissioned and produced by the National Theatre, with the first, Elmina's Kitchen, winning him the 2004 Evening Standard and Charles Wintor Awards for Most Promising Playwright, and being nominated for a Laurence Olivier award for Best New Play 2003. His subsequent plays for the NT were Fix Up and Statement of Regret.

'This is a valuable quartet of honest, touching and powerful plays.' * www.whatsonstage.com (September 2009) *