"There are powers that bind the world together, softer than spirits yet stronger than stone, that tie the river to the tree, the tree to rain clouds, rain clouds to the land, and people to each other."

The award-winning Once Upon a Time in Sokoto tells the epic story of a beautiful but unlikely friendship forged between a slave and her former master. Differences in faith, culture and heritage are overcome in the face of new enemies, in a gripping family drama set against the backdrop of events leading to the creation of Nigeria.

Winner of the 2024 Alfred Fagon Award for this play, Nigeria-born Inua Ellams is an internationally celebrated poet, playwright, and artist. He has published four poetry collections and his plays include the hugely popular and critically acclaimed Barber Shop Chronicles (Fuel/National Theatre, UK and International tour) and the award-winning The 14th Tale (Fuel/UK tour) and his retelling of Three Sisters (National Theatre).

Once Upon a Time in Sokoto is presented in association with Touring Together – a new national programme, bringing bold stories which shine a fresh light on the world we live in today, to audiences across the country.

Touring Together is a China Plate and Fuel initiative in collaboration with Brighton Dome, Leeds Playhouse, Oxford Playhouse, Royal and Derngate, Northampton and Warwick Arts Centre, generously supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Cast

Adeola Yemitan

Adeola Yemitan is an actor whose stage credits include Elektra (Empire Street Productions), Is Dat U Yh? (Bristol Old Vic), Is Dat U Yh? (Initiative.dkf with Brixton House), Much Ado About Nothing (RSC), The Caucasian Chalk Theatre (The Rose Theatre), Antigone (Mercury Theatre, Colchester), Ordinary Miracle (National Youth Theatre), Animal Farm (National Youth Theatre) and Othello (National Youth Theatre). 

Her short film credits include Blue (dir. Andrew Whyment), and her television credits include Grace (Second Act Productions). 
Antonia Layiwola

Antonia is a British actor from South London who trained at De Montfort University.

Stage credits include Iona in The Pursuit of Joy (Jermyn Street Theatre); Tolu in Is Dat U Yh? (Brixton House); Omolade in Silkworm (Edinburgh Fringe), recipient of a Fringe First Award 2022; Protests, Hymns & Caskets (Belgrade Theatre); Fragments of a Complicated Mind (Theatre503); Love Thy Fro (Theatre Peckham); Teleportation (Bunker Theatre); and Ilé La Wà (UK tour).

Screen credits include Dolapo in Dreamers and Bone (both directed by Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor); and Date Prep (dir. Ashley Panton).
Bayo Gbadamosi

Bayo stars as Kariem in War of the Worlds for FX/Disney+ across its three series.  He also plays Arkardy in hit comedy The Great for Hulu/ Channel 4, for which he was SAG Award nominated for Best Ensemble Cast. Recently, Bayo starred in the off-Broadway production of Foxes in New York and also starred in as Brick in Cat on A Hot Tin Roof at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. He has worked extensively on stage including a leading role at the Royal Court in I See You, Barbershop Chronicles (Fuel/National Theatre), Gloria at Hampstead Theatre and Little Revolution at the Almeida. 
Will Atiomo

Will Atiomo’s stage credits include Medea (ADC Theatre), Samskara (The Yard), Ordinary Miracle, Animal Farm and Othello (National Youth Theatre Rep Company). 

Film credits include Blitz (Apple TV+). Television credits include Sandman (Netflix).

Creative Team

Born in Nigeria, Inua Ellams is a poet, playwright, performer, graphic artist and designer. He is a Complete Works poet alumnus and facilitates accessible, enjoyable creative writing for participants of all ages and backgrounds. 

His awards include the Edinburgh Fringe First Award 2009, The Liberty Human Rights Award, The Live Canon International Poetry Prize, The Kent & Sussex Poetry Competition, Magma Poetry Competition, Winchester Poetry Prize, a Black British Theatre Award, The Hay Festival Medal for Poetry, Dora Awards for Outstanding Ensemble Performance and Production, and The Alfred Fagon Award 2024. 

He has been commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre, Tate Modern, Louis Vuitton and BBC Radio & Television. His poetry books include Candy Coated Unicorn and Converse All Stars (Flipped Eye), The Wire-Headed Heathen (Akashic Books), The Half God of Rainfall (4th Estate) and The Actual (Penned in the Margins). His plays include Black T-shirt Collection (Fuel/Warwick Arts Centre), The 14th Tale (Fuel/Battersea Arts Centre), Barber Shop Chronicles (Fuel/National Theatre/Oxford Playhouse/Bristol Old Vic/BAM/A.R.T./Kennedy Center/The Grand Theatre), Three Sisters (National Theatre/Soulpepper/Obsidian Theatre) and The Half God of Rainfall (Fuel/Kiln/New York Theatre Workshop). 

He founded The Midnight Run, The Rhythm and Poetry Party, Poetry + Film / Hack, Anonyms, Redacted and 05Fest. 

Roy is a director, writer, facilitator, dramaturg, creative business consultant and cultural leader with a passion for empowerment and enlightenment through storytelling. His work spans theatre, dance, film, radio, poetry and television. Roy was Joint Artistic Director & CEO of Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre between 2019-2023 and was awarded an MBE in the 2020 Queen’s New Year’s Honours. He is a writing tutor at Soho Writers Lab and a visiting lecturer at Mountview, Royal Academy of Music, Theatre Peckham and The Actors Class. He is a tutor and a trustee for Open Door People. 

Recent credits include ROBOTA (Headlong/Schwarzman Centre), Eureka Day (Gate Theatre, Dublin), Safe Space (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Hot Wing King (National Theatre), Master Harold and the Boys (National Theatre/West End), Nine Night (National Theatre/West End), Dead Don’t Floss (National Theatre), Untitled F*ck M*ss S**gon Play (Royal Exchange Theatre/Manchester International Festival/Headlong/Young Vic), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Royal Exchange Theatre/UK tour/Young Vic) and The Mountaintop (Royal Exchange Theatre/UK tour/Young Vic). Roy was Story Editor on Letitia Wright’s sci-fi film Highway To The Moon and is currently developing a slate of short and feature film scripts and television series as writer. 

Upcoming projects include Botis Seva’s Sing Child Sing (Far From The Norm) and Grooves by Louiseanne Wong. 

Designs include Othello (Shakespeare’s Globe), The Crucible (Shakespeare’s Globe), Red Pitch (West End/Bush Theatre), Mlima’s Tale (Kiln Theatre), Hide (Donmar Warehouse), Hit Machine (Soho Theatre), Richard III (Liverpool Playhouse), Let the Right One In (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), Mountains (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads (Chichester Festival Theatre), Trans-It (Pop Up Plays/Fifth Word), LAD (Pop Up Plays/Fifth Word), Drowntown (Barbican/Wuzhen Theatre Festival), Cinderella (Brixton House), Limp Wrist & The Iron Fist (Brixton House), The Night Before Christmas (Leeds Playhouse), Rudolf (Leeds Playhouse), The Wave (Almeida Theatre), (This Isn’t) A True Story (Almeida Theatre), Christmas in the Sunshine (Unicorn Theatre), The Wolf, the Duck and the Mouse (Unicorn Theatre), Unknown Rivers (Hampstead Theatre), One Under (Graeae), Blue/Orange (Birmingham Rep), The Comedy of Errors (RSC), The Fishermen (Trafalgar Studios), Gastronomic (curious directive), PowerPlay (Historic Royal Palaces), Good Dog (UK tour), Fake It ’Til You Make It (UK/Australian tour) and We Are You (Young Vic). 

Amelia Jane Hankin is an Associate Artist of Shakespeare’s Globe, an Associate Lecturer at the Royal College of Art and a member of Brixton House’s Artistic Advisory Collective. 

Femi Temowo is a MOBO-Award nominated artist, composer and music producer.

An early benchmark in his career was being approached by critically acclaimed jazz saxophonist Soweto Kinch, who asked Femi to become part of his newly formed ‘Soweto Kinch Quartet’ in 2002. This collaboration culminated in a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize, a BBC Jazz award for Best New Group, and several MOBO awards.

Femi’s slick and melodic guitar sound has earned him a place beside many great musicians from across a huge variety of genres, having toured or recorded with artists including George Benson, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Amy Winehouse, Courtney Pine, Taylor Swift, The Roots, Omar, Roachford, Jason Rebello, Eska Mtungwazi, Terri Walker, Jean Toussaint, Don Blackman, and Michal Urbaniak.

Recent Theatre credits include:  Choir Boy (Stratford East & Bristol Old Vic) The Beautiful Future is Coming; The Little Mermaid (Bristol Old Vic); A Good House (Bristol Old Vic/ Royal Court/ Market Theatre, Johannesburg); The Hot Wing King, Three Sisters (National Theatre); Mlima’s Tale (Kiln Theatre); Rumble in the Jungle (Rematch Live); Death of a Salesman (Young Vic Theatre, West End & Broadway); Cock (West End); Much Ado About Nothing (RSC); and breathe…(Almeida Theatre); Rockets and Blue Lights (National Theatre/ Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester)

Coral Messam has over 20 years’ experience working in the arts and commercial industry. Her work as a performer and movement director has been multifaceted. Movement direction and choreography credits include Stranger Things: The First Shadow (West End), Much Ado About Nothing (National Theatre), Paradise (National Theatre), Small Island (National Theatre), Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (National Theatre), The Amen Corner (National Theatre), Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Globe), The Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare’s Globe), Bartholomew Fair (Shakespeare’s Globe), Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich (RSC), The Whip (RSC), The Convert (Young Vic), Ruined (Almeida Theatre), Bob Marley Musical (Birmingham Rep) and King Lear (Royal Exchange Theatre). 

Television and film work includes Blitz (Apple Studios), The First Omen (20th Century Studios), Masters of The Air (Apple TV+), The Man Who Fell To Earth (Paramount+), Small Axe (BBC Films), I May Destroy You (BBC), The Essex Serpent (Apple TV+), Cursed (Netflix), Britannia (Sky) and Game of Thrones (HBO). 

She was intimacy coordinator and movement director for the short film Bone and for For Love (dir. Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor), and has worked on First F*** and a music promo for 6lack (dir. Jason Osborne). She was choreographer for the United Arab Emirates 40th Anniversary stadium show. Her directorial debut, Run It Back, was nominated for a Black British Theatre Award in 2022. The show, which she conceived and co-created, played at Hackney Showroom in 2019 and was remounted by Talawa Theatre in 2021. Coral’s work has been featured in SEEN, an international journal for global creative artists and filmmakers.

Jessica Cabassa was born in the Dominican Republic, where her artistic journey was shaped by the island’s rich cultural heritage. She later pursued her passion for the arts in Italy, studying theatre and cinema in Turin, before relocating to London in 2011. 

With a multidisciplinary background spanning fashion, costume design and the performing arts, Jessica has established herself as a distinctive creative voice within the industry. Her work has been featured on stages including the Barbican Theatre, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Lyric Hammersmith, Brixton House and Sadler’s Wells. She has collaborated with artists including Monique Touko, Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu and choreographers Cassa Pancho, Sophie Laplane, Mthuthuzeli November and Hope Boykin. 

Jessica is a two-time recipient of a Black British Theatre Award, receiving the 2022 Costume Design Recognition Award for Say It Loud (Ballet Black) and the 2024 Theatre Design Award. Her portfolio also includes Rumble in the Jungle (Rematch Live), which reimagined the historic Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman boxing match, and Ballet Black’s adaptation of Oyinkan Braithwaite’s acclaimed novel My Sister, the Serial Killer. 

Her recent design collaborations include Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (Lyric Hammersmith Theatre), Ballet Black’s 25th anniversary production (UK tour) and Black Power Desk (Brixton House). Currently working as a full-time freelance designer, Jessica continues to contribute to fashion, dance, theatre and television. Her work reflects a fusion of Caribbean and Mediterranean influences, enriched by her passion for analogue photography and street style.

Heather Basten is an award-winning, BIFA and Royal Television Society-nominated casting director working across film, television, theatre, including West End and major regional productions, and commercials.

 

Theatre includes: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Old Vic); The Homecoming, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, A Face in the Crowd, Beneatha’s Place, Passing Strange (Young Vic); Shifters, Elektra, Barcelona, Self Esteem: A Complicated Woman (Duke of York’s); The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (RSC, Soho Place); Red Pitch (Bush, Soho Place); The Harder They Come (Stratford East); Dracula (Lyric Hammersmith); House of Ife (Bush); Comedy of Spies (Noël Coward).

 

TV and film includes: Dreaming Whilst Black (A24, Showtime, BBC); Speak No Evil (Universal/Blumhouse); Hoard (BBC Film); Other Mommy (Universal).

 

Heather is a member of the Casting Directors Guild and the Casting Society of America. She received a Royal Television Society nomination for Best Casting in 2023, followed by BIFA and BBTA nominations in 2024. Her work has also been recognised through honours including Screen International’s Star of Tomorrow, BAFTA Breakthrough, a CSA Artios nomination, and a Casting Directors’ Guild Award win. She is the founder of In The Room Studios, operating across London.

Brigitte Adela is a theatre director, facilitator, sound artist, and creative producer. As a director, her work is character-driven, exploring messy, complex relationships with a particular interest in unhinged female characters. As a facilitator, she’s an enabler of creativity, she devises and facilitates accessible workshops on various elements of theatre making, for children, young people and adults. As a sound artist she creates sound art that explores the relationship between physical space and aural space and the spaces in between. She is the Young People’s Programme Manager at Tramshed and a trustee for Theatre-Rites.

She has been an associate artist at Jermyn Street Theatre, associate maker at Coney and part of Tamasha Directors Group.

Her previous credits as director include: Love in Gravitational Waves (Talawa / Nottingham Playhouse / Bristol Old Vic); The Pursuit of Joy (Jermyn Street Theatre); Sweetness, Broken Frames (National Theatre New Views); Waves (The Bunker).

 

As assistant director: Outlying Islands (Jermyn Street Theatre); Infamous (Jermyn Street Theatre). 

Reviews

Such an ambitious piece
5 rating
The Independent
This is a work, full of humanity and glancing wit The New York Times