We were delighted to attend the media call for Choir Boy, set to open at Stratford East later this month. The play is a transfer from the critically acclaimed Bristol Old Vic run in 2023, picking up 3 Black British Theatre Awards including Best Director and Best Production. We had the incredibly exciting opportunity to watch a scene and song from the show, and interview the cast and creative team afterwards.
Choir Boy is a coming of age story set in an elite all Black boarding school in America.
“Pharus is a confident and gifted singer who has earned his position as soloist. But when his pride is sullied by one of his peers, he falters… what does it mean to be a young, Black, queer man – and to be one at the Charles R. Drew Prep School for Boys?”
We are presented with a scene from the beginning of the play, where we are introduced to the boys in their choir room, settling into another day at school. We immediately get a sense of the dynamics between the students, particularly the sense of responsibility and leadership of Pharus, and the cynical, antagonistic nature of Bobby. The scene ends with the boys joining hands in prayer singing the song I Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray. We sat down with Tatenda Shamiso, co-director and cast members Daon Broni, Khalid Daley, Michael Ahomka-Lindsay and Martin Turner to discuss the production.
In Conversation with: Tatenda Shamiso, co-director
Interviewer: How does it feel to step back into doing the show after two years? And how has your life perspective or experiences or context changed in between runs?
Tatenda: It’s an absolute gift being able to return to this play. We had the most amazing time [doing] the show in Bristol and we were really hoping for the opportunity to be able to share it with more people. I feel like the work is a lot more urgent now in 2026 than it was in 2023. The United States, but also the world in general, certainly the West, is sort of taking this lean further towards fascism. I do think that we are in more segregationist times in the U.S., so to have this space where we are dealing with the pressures of maintaining a black legacy and the pressures of black excellence on a group of very young boys […] it feels like a very important time because it’s a conversation that’s reverberating all over the country and the world. We’ve all gotten more seasoned and [the] new faces in our cast have reinvigorated us with new life. Now we’ve got this extra time, we get to really focus on the storytelling and the journey that these boys are going on, which is such a beautiful opportunity. Stratford’s house is so beautiful it feels like a great place to be bringing it from Bristol Old Vic. We’ve all come back really hungry.
I: So, the show is set in an elite boys school in America. What kind of inspirations did you give to the British members of the team to kind of bring that authentic Black American experience?
T: I think we are lucky in that Nancy (the director) is American, I’m American myself and our voice and dialect coach Andrea Fudge is also from the US. Also Ingrid McKinnon, our movement director, is North American as well. So we’ve got a pretty sturdy, American stronghold in the creative team to hold that.
I think that because the precinct of this story is so specific, we were able to delve into the history quite precisely. So it was notions of black excellence, which I think are really important to deal with here because these boys are at this elite school, [there’s] the pressure to not just be academically good, but academically excellent. This is an environment that is meant to be leading the black future of tomorrow. As a result of that, we’re also looking at important orators that were really vital in the civil rights movement, such as, James Baldwin or Malcolm X. Also religious leaders like T.D. Jakes in more contemporary times. [We also thought] about the legacy of spirituals, because all of these songs are spirituals in that they’re acapella. [We looked at] the history of what spiritual and gospel music in the U.S. is, African American religious history, what it is to be part of the black church as opposed to different denominations of Christianity. I think a lot of that has formed the bedrock of our context, and it’s so great to visit those historical periods of the US and return to that legacy in a time where we really need black orators to be speaking up.
Terrell Alvin McCraney is an amazing playwright and has also given us so much to work with in terms of understanding the cadence of the speech of each character. So it’s not just a general American thing – this is a boarding school! They’re all coming from different parts of the country. [We’re asking] what is it like to come from this backwards part of Georgia? One of us is from Boca Raton. One of us is from Virginia or New York and what does the melting pot of American culture look like distilled in this one school?
I: How do you feel London audiences will respond to this show in comparison to the previous run?
T: I think that London’s going to love this play. I think that there’s always that question about bringing in cultural imports when the Black British experience is such a prevalent thing. And we don’t necessarily have the same repertoire or the canon of Black British writing. [Whereas] I feel like we’ve got a wealth of African-American writing now over the last several decades that can exist and be imported across the ocean. We do have a growing canon of Black British plays [and] it’s so important to stage those as well. But I do think that we’re at a time where America sneezes and the UK catches a cold. I do think that there are so many conversations that translate across the Atlantic in this show in particular. I think conversations about faith right now are really important. I’m Gen Z and I feel like [Gen Z] are shifting towards systems of faith and organized religion or just spirituality right now to find answers in such troubled and uncertain times. So it feels like the right time to be bringing this show to London.
In conversation with the cast Daon Broni, Khalid Daley, Michael Ahomka-Lindsay and Martin Turner:
Interviewer: So how does it feel to step back into the roles after this original run?
KD: I always say this to everyone – it feels like a gift from heaven. just to work with this piece, this writing, and this group of people. Yeah, it’s so special. It was special the first time, it feels even more special the second time because we’ve had time away, like you grow and you age.
MA-L: I don’t know about you, I didn’t age!
KD: Yeah, you live life and then you come back to these characters and you’re like, ‘oh, okay, what have I learned about myself that I could bring to them?’ Which is incredibly rewarding. It’s been wonderful.
MA-L: It is cool to sort of come back to something when you’ve changed yourself and your perspective has changed. It makes me think about hindsight as well because the play in general is about younger people. We’ve spoken a bit about how you look back on that time in your life and you can feel it. What’s even more interesting is how I have more hindsight now than I had then. And so there’s more I’m remembering or seeing about this experience in the play this time [around]. Hindsight really is 20-20! And the more hindsight you get, the better the sight is.
MT: I feel three years older. Different things have happened in my life since then. I’m just getting to the right age [of my character], these guys are allwell past the appropriate age.
MA-L: Well! That “well” was heavy!
I: So the show is set in an elite boy’s school in America and you guys are all British. What kind of inspirations from the American experience did you take (or were you given) to bring to your roles?
MA-L: The music is one of the first and biggest gifts in the show. You hear the spirituals but also their voices and the way they speak is the most immediately recognisable thing when you’re reading the script. Everyone has a certain way and certain vernacular […] and the songs mostly live within the American cultural perspective. We did a lot of work on where each person comes from and how that’s relevant to their relationships and their stories. Who comes from where, who’s further away from home, who’s got a different way of speaking to other people, who has a different relationship with their religion […] just to try and create more detail.
I: I appreciate the detail this show goes into. I really enjoy the intersection of cultural geography and theatre!
MA-L: An interesting geographical and historical thing […] there used to be hundreds of black boarding schools in the US and now there’s only four left. It’s all connected to the history of the US, and the civil rights movement. [Looking at] why these schools were set up and what they were trying to achieve, which takes us into the black excellence lens. [Exploring] what these people are going through and what the institution represents, which is unique to America, really. We don’t have historically black universities in the U.K. so it’s something specific.
I: It’s some of your first times working at this venue. How do you feel coming back (addressed to Khalid) or bringing this show to this well-established, prestigious venue?
KD: It’s such a blessing to come back. The first time I came to Stratford East, I did The Big Life – that was two years ago. I’d never experienced an audience like that who was so ‘in it’. And not just in the sense of like, ‘oh they’re watching’, they’re so ‘in it’. Like they’re rooting for characters and even being vocal about how they’re rooting for these characters. So I’m excited for the audiences to… eat this one up!
I: I am going to be eating it up! I love reacting to theatre and rooting for characters.
KD: It’s amazing, it feels unapologetic which I love. Sometimes I feel as though with British audiences it can be very reserved [like] ‘we don’t want to be too loud’. But here I think because it feels like such a treat and they’re so engrossed they can’t help but make noise, they can’t help but be vocal and say something!