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Barber Shop Chronicles Tickets

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RoundhouseLondon
Nigerian-born playwright Inua Ellams takes his Barber Shop Chronicles back to London after a hit run at the National Theatre.

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Roundhouse Barber Shop Chronicles tickets London on sale now!

Inua Ellams' smash-hit play, Barber Shop Chronicles, returns to London for a limited run at the Roundhouse Theatre after a sold-out run at the National Theatre. Tickets for the Barber Shop Chronicles revival are bound to be among the hottest London theatre tickets of the summer. Be sure to book your tickets early to secure the best seats at the Roundhouse at the best prices.

What is the Barber Shop Chronicles play about?

For many African men, the barbershop is more than just a place to get a haircut. It’s also a place of gathering and a place to seek advice where the barbershop becomes a confession box and the barbers become wise men. While the concept of the African-American barbershop is certainly nothing new and has already been explored in both the Barbershop film series with Ice Cube and even Coming to America with Eddie Murphy, Barber Shop Chronicles is a fresh take that places African identity and African masculinity front and centre while avoiding African-American identity and US barbershops altogether.

Inua Ellams' heartwarming play, Barber Shop Chronicles, is set in six cities: Johannesburg (South Africa), Harare (Zimbabwe), Kampala (Uganda), Lagos, Accra (Ghana) and London, and it takes place over the course of one day with a thousand stories to tell. The play offers the unique experience for audiences to 'eavesdrop' on the many conversations that go on when the hair clippers buzz and the towels toss. Conversation topics range from a dead fly in one's beer and Nigerian pidgin to an ingrown hair, homosexuality, football, and women. Though you'll get an inside look at the lives of African men in six different cultural settings, the dynamics between the barber and the customer remain the same. 

Quick-witted, exuberant and packed with outstanding dance and music, Barber Shop Chronicles is guaranteed to leave you mesmerised from start to finish.

More about Inua Ellams

Inua Ellams was born in Nigeria in 1984 and is a world-renowned poet, performer, playwright, and visual artist. As a poet, he has published four poetry collections entitled #Afterhours, Thirteen Fairy Negro Tales, The Wire-Headed Heathen, and Candy Coated Unicorns and Converse All Stars. As a playwright, his debut play The 14th Tale enjoyed a critically acclaimed run at the Edinburgh International Theatre Festival, which went on to win the award for Fringe First. Barber Shop Chronicles marks the Ellams' fourth play and boasts a sold-out run at the National Theatre in London. He has recently been touring The Half God of Rainfall, a play in verse, and An Evening With An Immigrant, and he currently resides in London, where he founded the nocturnal urban excursion, Midnight Run. Ellams serves as an ambassador for the Ministry of Stories and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Barber Shop Chronicles briefly explores the many challenges that Inua Ellams has faced in real life. At a young age, he and his family were forced to flee Nigeria and escape persecution after people grew angry of Ellam's father who had begun to question his Muslim faith. After three years in London, the family moved to Ireland where Ellams was subject to racism and bullied in school for being black. His difficulty in obtaining citizenship status at the age of 18 delayed his opportunity to study at university and he turned to writing and poetry to help cope. His poetry had soon become so widely known that when he was finally able to go to college, albeit still unable to due to a lack of education funds, his work was being taught at the university he wanted to attend. Ellams hopes to bring Barber Shop Chronicles to Broadway sometime in 2020.

Barber Shop Chronicles Roundhouse London cast

The Barber Shop Chronicles sees twelve actors take on the roles of 30 characters in this fourth play by Inua Ellams. The North London cast of Barber Shop Chronicles stars Adé Dee Haastrup, Anthony Ofoegbu, David Webber, Demmy Ladipo, Emmanuel Ighodaro, Maynard Eziashi, and Mohammed Mansaray from the original National Theatre production and will also star incoming actors Elmi Rashid, Eric Shango, Micah Balfour, Okorie Chukwu, and Tom Moutchi.

Barber Shop Chronicles Roundhouse tickets available now!

Don't miss out on tickets to Barber Shop Chronicles. This highly praised production is back in London at the Roundhouse this summer for a limited season. Book your tickets to see the Off-West End production of Barber Shop Chronicles early to avoid disappointment.