Talawa Stories: Copper & Lead
It’s 1978. The night is ripe with sweat, jerry curls and anticipation. After a couple fall in love on the dancefloor, a secret threatens to shatter their lives and bodies forever.
Talawa Stories from the UK’s outstanding Black Theatre Company presents a story with an explosive secret that threatens to shatter a young Black couple’s love – and bodies – forever.
It’s 1978 and a group of young women hit the town looking to shake off the blues of the Winter of Discontent. Ending up in a steamy club, the night is ripe with sweat, jerry curls and anticipation. It’s there that Nancy meets Jeremiah, a charming Jamaican Brummie and she falls head over heels.
Soon enough, they’re married with a home and two children, but one of them is hiding something - a secret with the potential to shatter their lives, and bodies, forever.
lydia luke’s fiction is a poetic exploration of love, sacrifice and loss, offering an alternate history on the backdrop of one of the harshest winters the UK has ever seen. Tackling ideas around belonging, medical negligence and disposability, copper & lead is an intimate depiction of Black life in the Midlands with a speculative twist.
Cast (in order of appearance):
Nancy – Petra Letang
Joyce – Phoebe McIntosh
Friend 1, 2, 3 & Doctor – Alison A Addo
Jeremiah – Karl Collins
Agnes – Mellieha Mazombwe
Creative team:
Writer – lydia luke (she/her)
Director – Phillip J Morris (he/him)
Series Producer – Alison Holder (she/her)
Executive Producer – Caroline Raphael (she/her)
Sound Design – Lucinda Mason-Brown (she/her) and David Chilton (he/him)
Dramaturg – malakaï sargeant (they/them)
Production Coordinator – Alex Lynch (he/him)
Talawa New Work Producer - David Gilbert (he/him)
Casting Assistant – Melissa Vitalis Smith (she/her)
A Talawa Theatre Company production for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4