Bunker Talks: Zodwa Nyoni

Playwright Zodwa Nyoni discusses Liberation, her new MIF play on Black activism and revolution, at this special Bunker Talk.

Zodwa Nyoni is a Zimbabwean-born playwright, librettist, screenwriter and director. Her debut play, Boi Boi Is Dead won the Channel 4 Playwrights’ Scheme in 2014. It was also a finalist for the international Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2014/15. Since, her plays have been produced in the UK, France, Germany, USA, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Her most recent work, The Darkest Part of The Night (Kiln Theatre) was shortlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award and George Devine Award 2021. It was ranked as one of the best plays of 2022 by The Independent (UK).

Zodwa’s plays are published by Bloomsbury. She has lectured in poetry and theatre since 2018. She is currently a Lecturer in Scriptwriting at Manchester Metropolitan University and an associate dramaturg for Tiata Fahodzi and Fifth Word Theatre. She has written two radio plays, Love Again (BBC Radio 3) and A Khoisan Woman (Drama on 3); and three short films: Mahogany (National Trust and 24 Design Ltd) and Notes on Being A Lady (New Creatives / BBC Arts) and the award winning, The Ancestors (BBC Films and BFI Network).

Zodwa was an international fellow on Oxbelly’s inaugural Episodic Program in Greece. She is a BAFTA Connect member and was on the BIFA mentoring programme. She is currently working on Netflix’s spin-off series, Castlevania: Nocturne under commission at Manchester Royal Exchange, Bristol Old Vic and Kiln Theatre; and writing an opera for Buxton International Festival.

Liberation

How does a revolution begin and who keeps it going?

Inspired by true events in Black British history, Liberation is a powerful new play from writer Ntombizodwa Nyoni and director Monique Touko tracing the private lives of activists who fought to liberate Africa.

It’s 15 October 1945, Manchester. Africa’s freedom and future is in the hands of her descendants at the Fifth Pan-African Congress at Chorlton-on-Medlock Town Hall.

With decades of championing change under their belts, emerging African & Caribbean activists and scholars offer new radical ideas of liberation. However, the organiser, Trinidadian activist George Padmore is unsure who to pass the baton to. Kwame Nkrumah is fuelled by an idealistic desire to become the first Black president of the Gold Coast. Young, resourceful Jamaican social worker Alma La Badie is grappling with the truth behind who must be sacrificed for the cause. And what of the revered Amy Ashwood-Garvey how does she ensure the voices of Black women are heard?

A story of hope, friendship and the consequences of a long-denied awakening unravels in the conference halls and bars of Chorlton, but at what cost?

This groundbreaking new play developed 80 years after the Congress introduces the people behind the movement. Liveration gets to the heart of how our future is built, how our leaders are made, and how dreams are realised. With generational shifts and gender politics added to a swirling mix of power dynamics, LIBERATION asks timeless questions about revolution, freedom, and what it means to be an activist.

Receiving its World Premiere as part of Manchester International Festival 2025, LIBERATION includes composition by Ife Ogunjobi from the Brit Award-winning Ezra Collective and was commissioned by the Royal Exchange Theatre.