DESERT BOY

Nitro: Albany Empire and national tour. 2010

Set on Deptford Beach, South East London; Desert Boy is a funny, provoking, poetic musical which offers an eclectic mix of modern and traditional styles of music from Mali to hip hop, from gospel to rap. An a cappella musical with African story-telling and songs woven seamlessly together using dance and drama.

One February I found myself in Sydney for a week. While I was there I saw a book called “Black Founders” by Cassandra Pybus. It was about the fact that on the notorious First Fleet to Australia in 1776 there were black convicts; and this voyage was the culmination of an extraordinary series of journeys from enslavement in West Africa to the cotton fields of Virginia, through the War of Independence, flight to England, poverty and destitution leading to petty crime and transportation to Australia.

I had known of Mojisola Adebayo’s work and knew she would take this notion and run with it; which she did by bringing it up to date in a magical interweaving of parallel contemporary and historic tales. I wrote the music and lyrics and directed it as an a cappella musical.

“..the fluidity of Felix Cross's production is aided by his own compositions, sung a cappella by a tight, ensemble cast; and Emmanuel Idowu impresses as the dying boy who unexpectedly finds someone else's life flashing in front of his eyes.” The Guardian  

“Adebayo is a master storyteller and combined with Felix Cross' direction this production is exactly what theatre should be.” British Theatre Guide