Housemates Festival returns for its third year, along with eight shows and two readings by some of the finest talent.
From a comedian’s career going awry, a TV show-like test of our Britishness, an interdisciplinary piece on spirituality and ecology, a celebration of our frontline nurses, a young woman’s experience of losing her hair, the adventures of a woman determined to meet a UK rap superstar, to an exploration of how young Black gay men see themselves and a young man’s love story with Jesus Christ, we know there will be a show for you to enjoy.
Housemates Festival is our flagship artistic development programme which builds on the legacy of Ovalhouse and its historic thirty-year development programme First Bites. Through Housemates Festival and our wider programme, we present and collaborate with voices and perspectives not currently centred in mainstream funded culture. Where some subject matters in our productions may be sensitive or challenging, we advise you to check the content warnings before booking.
Check out some of the shows below.
BASIC BALD B*TCH
By Emily Glaze
24-28 Sep 24
Meet Amy. Everyone wants to be like Amy. Well, they used to.
Nocturnal Sun
By Chisara Agor
24-28 Sep 24
An inter-disciplinary performance piece that combines music, movement and visual art. Nocturnal Sun centres around themes of human history, spirituality and ecology.
My Period The C*ckblock
By Ruth Oyediran
1-5 Oct 24
When Bolade discovers a pill that delays her period just in time for a much-anticipated party, she and Jessica embark on a night of unexpected twists, deep conversations and uproarious adventures.
How British Eres Tu?
By Victor Rios
2-5 Oct 24
Have you ever imagined exactly just what your level of Britishness might be?
A Night with Hennessy Jade
By India Wilson and Jeremiah Towolawi
1-5 Oct 24
A Mixed-race female comedian’s stagnant career turns upside down after she tells a single joke, spiralling into chaos and self-discovery.
Jeezus! A New Musical
By Sergio Antonio Maggiolo
8-12 Oct 24
A two-hander comedy musical that combines cabaret with personal documentary.
Tending
By El Blackwood
8-12 Oct 24
Tending offers a heartbreaking, hilarious and very human look at the experience of the nurses on the frontline of our health service.
Limp Wrist & The Iron Fist
By Emmanuel Akwafo
9-12 Oct 24
A vibrant celebration of Black, queer identities, exploring themes of love, resilience, and self-discovery.
Housemates Festival 2023 productions
Is Dat U Yh?
By DK Fashola
4-8 Jul 23
Tolu and the “Back Of the Bus Queens” relive and rediscover their love of home, in this joyous and whacky adventure down memory lane. Surreal memories, short stories, and nonsense!
Is The WiFi Good In Hell?
By Lyndon Chapman
5-8 Jul 23
It’s 2008. Margate isn’t cool (yet), and Dev – proudly wearing his wolf-hat on a derelict shack – is also far from it. Is the WiFi Good in Hell? follows Dev’s journey from boyhood to adulthood. Margate to London.
REP
By Toby Clarke
6-8 Jul 23
REP follows nine young offenders from different London boroughs who are thrown together into a Community Theatre project as part of their Youth Rehabilitation Orders.
Same, Same, But Different
By Megs Kumari
11-15 Jul 23
Cam and Jesse dive headfirst into the whirlwind of life over a mundane yet extraordinary decade, offering a striking display of queer normality, but is living an average life radical or is it part of the problem?
Useless
By Marisol Spensieri
13-15 Jul 23
In a world where autonomy becomes a privilege and where robotic productivity is at the zenith of its powers – who holds the playing cards? Who makes the next move? You decide.
Eating Myself
By Pepa Duarte
12-15 Jul 23
Pepa found herself on a journey, a journey inside herself, to discover that food could be shared with a new family around a new table.
Before I Go
By Tobi King Bakare
18-22 Jul 23
Follow Ajani, a young boy who tragically dies and gets stuck in limbo and forced to undergo overcoming and acceptance in order to be revived into the living world.
Everything I Own
By Daniel Ward
19-22 Jul 23
Errol lost his Dad last year. Listening to his old man’s Spotify playlist, he remembers his Dad’s passion over the 1981 Brixton uprising and his certainty that change coming.
Housemates Festival 2022 productions
Big Girl Words
By Winnie Arhin
21-23 Apr 22
Ama, a young writer-performer, is trying to navigate the theatre world and finds herself facing a dilemma infused with micro aggressions and family obligations.
Saturn Returns
By Sonny Nwachukwu
21-24 Apr 22
Saturn Returns is a choreopoem that explores the psychospiritual clashes produced in Black people by the weight of history.
Things I Can Laugh About Now
By Shakira Newton
26-29 Apr 22
In this coming-of-age, uplifting story of self-discovery and hope, we get an insight into what it means to tick every minority box on the application form and this can affect one’s mental health and in-turn life choices.
Concha
By Carly Fernandez
26-29 Apr 22
Concha is a semi-autobiographical show that explores the Queer experience and all of the glorious and messy things that comes with it.
Comrades in the Dark
By Caitlin Barnett
26-29 Apr 22
Emerging choreographer Caitlin Barnett presents Comrades in the Dark, a highly physical contemporary dance exploring the brutality and humanity within Sands’ poetry and prose, written in secret behind bars.
I Miss Amy Winehouse
By Suchandrika Chakrabarti
3-4 May 22
Join Suchandrika Chakrabarti in missing Amy Winehouse IN show about nostalgia, the death of print media and partying hard. There will be quizzes too!
For the Love of a Primary Caregiver
By Cheryl Ndione
3-5 May 22
A revealing one-woman show that explores a toxic bond between a mother and daughter and deals with themes of belonging, self esteem and learned behaviour.
Chicken Burger N Chips
By Corey Bovell
3-6 May 22
Summer holidays in South London, Corey dreams of nothing but hanging around with his friends while ordering as much Morley’s as possible. Until Jodie comes along and makes him realise things are changing.