At the Riley Theatre
Family Honour tells the story of a Ghanaian family’s beginnings, and their struggle to stay together.
Through a brilliantly unique meeting of hip hop and theatre, the work examines the impact of upholding familial, religious and gender expectations on one's mental health, asking in what ways is it important to maintain family honour.
Originally a duet from award-winning international choreographer Kwame Asafo-Adjei, the work won France’s prestigious Danse Élargie in 2018. Now expanded as a full-length ensemble production, witness a raw exploration of family and personal trauma, putting you in the front seat for tense, honest confrontations that go generations deep.
Warnings: This production contains the threat of violence and psychological abuse
Running time: 60 mins
Part of our season pass deal
Tickets:£12 (£8)
“sophisticated in its use of hip-hop language for theatrical ends“
“a tensely contained dispute that tells of the repression of young women by older religious men”
– The Guardian
Kwame Asafo-Adjei is a dance artist who fuses his hip-hop training with contemporary dance and his Ghanaian background, helping create a unique style of movement that tackles the day-to-day realities he faces in his social surroundings. Often exploring the development of black culture, themes of tension and release are ever-present in his provocative work.
Kwame gained an interest in creating work through taking part in development programmes such as Sadler’s Wells Open Art Surgery. By shadowing his mentors – hip hop pioneer Jonzi D and choreographer Jonathan Burrows – he was able to gain clarity on his identity within his work, which he sees as being blunt, ugly, beautiful and truthful.
Kwame is the Founder and Artistic Director of Spoken Movement through which he creates his work. In producing his work, such as his Wild Card evening at Sadler’s Wells, Asafo-Adjei’s aim was to focus on the audience response and how viewers must abandon an analytical perspective in order to understand the culture from a black perspective. In Alistair Spalding’s words: ‘his choreography is often raw and confronting, but full of honesty and thought-provoking’.
