Phina Oruche’s hilariously funny one-woman show Identity Crisis transfers to London’s Ovalhouse Theatre from 8 – 14 May 2017.
The play which has enjoyed successful runs at the Edinburgh Fringe 2015, The Wardrobe Theatre in Bristol, and the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool explores identity struggles that are common to us all.
The play was born out of a real-life story of the sudden death of Oruche’s 19-year-old niece in her home in 2011. This distressing time was followed by a series of racial and international incidents happening throughout the world and in her life.
Identity Crisis helped her turn a mess into a message. Join audiences as they are taken through sixty images of Oruche when she worked in the world of fashion, providing an illuminating exposition of life on the catwalk.
Identity Crisis focuses on nine characters all of whom are having their own identity crises; they are black, white, old, young, male and female. Through its simple staging, the cast is brought to life; from Amy Tan, a working-class white girl with a Scouse brow and a taste for spray tans and black lads, to Antonio de Silva, a football crazy Italian living in LA who is missing his mum.
The audience are taken through sixty images of Oruche when she worked in the world of fashion, providing an illuminating exposition of life on the catwalk. Starting with the media’s telling of when tragedy struck, this laugh-out-loud show examines Oruche’s own observations on others conceptions of black people in the media via her life as she worked as a fashion model, actress, radio presenter and then writer.
After the Ovalhouse season, Phina will bring Identity Crisis to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2017.
