The Clinic Tickets
3 (1) · Contemporary Drama, New Writing
"There are flames in your eyes, telling me you’re going to be a wildfire."
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Overview
Wunmi is tired of the fight. When her world collapses, she asks Ore to help end her life.
Ore resolves to save Wunmi instead, providing sanctuary in her parents’ home - a family of charity workers, therapists and politicians, dedicated to serving their community.
Wunmi’s presence soon disrupts familiar patterns - cracks start to widen and bad blood thickens. As these pillars of society crumble, Wumni wonders whether she’s walked into a refuge or a trap?
The Clinic is a fiercely political and lyrical play by Dipo Baruwa-Etti (An unfinished man, The Yard) written during a twelve-month residency with the Almeida as part of the Channel 4 Playwrights' bursary.
This world premiere, directed by Monique Touko (Fair Play, Bush Theatre), is a tense and transfixing portrait of a woman with a hunger for change, a family on fire and how to rise from the ashes of a broken world.
Age Recommendation: 16+
This production includes discussion of assisted suicide, references to a miscarriage, long-term illness and death, as well as racially violent language and discussion of racism.
###Cast and Creative Biographies
Dipo Baruwa-Etti is a playwright, filmmaker, and poet. As a playwright, he was the 2020 Channel 4 Playwright-on-attachment with the Almeida Theatre and shortlisted for the George Devine Most Promising Playwright Award the same year with his play When Great Trees Fall. His other plays include The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars (Theatre Royal Stratford East); An unfinished man (The Yard) and the upcoming Half-Empty Glasses (Paines Plough). As writer-director, his work includes the award-winning short film The Last Days, a BFI Network/BBC/Tannahill production starring Adjoa Andoh and Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn. He also has original projects in development with companies including Blueprint Pictures and Duck Soup Films. As a poet, he has been published in The Good Journal, Ink Sweat & Tears, Amaryllis, and had his work showcased nationwide as part of End Hunger UK's touring exhibition on food insecurity.
Monique Touko is a London based multidisciplinary artist working in theatre, radio and film. She made her professional debut with Malindadzimu by Mufaro Makubika at Hampstead Theatre Downstairs. Her second professional show was Fair Play by Ella Road at Bush Theatre. Her credits as an assistant director include Wishlist (Royal Exchange Manchester and Royal Court); Kanye the First (HighTide); Yellowman (Young Vic); On the Exhale (Traverse Theatre); Cock (Chichester Festival Theatre); Richard II (Shakespeare’s Globe); Rosmersholm (Duke of York Theatre) and Blood Wedding (Young Vic). Monique is a producer in film and music videos and her credits include an independent project for Franklyn Lane Film Productions. She is also part of The Ubunifu Space, a definitive guide to music and culture from the youth of Africa and the diaspora - the Ubunifu way.
Critic reviews
Warm, absorbing, not-to-be-missed production
An invigorating play connects the political and personal with ease
Intense and powerful storytelling that is sure to set the audience ablaze
Dipo Baruwa-Etti pits a fiery outsider activist against the British-Nigerian middle-class
The resultant delivery style is at once amusingly familiar and naturalistic
Wild, witty and shocking
Fascinating and frustrating but not afraid of big questions
Sometimes brilliant, sometimes baffling
It's big, bold and unruly
All served up naturalistically in Monique Touko’s production
Baruwa-Etti is, without doubt, an exciting writer and one to be watched
A laboured essay in identity politics
Lacks breathing room for its themes
Creatives
Cast
Date & time
Captioned: Thu 29 Sep, 7.30pm
Audio Described & Touch Tour: Sat 24 Sep, 12.45pm
Relaxed: Wed 21 Sep, 2.30pm
Venue
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