Donate Now
Skip to content
Skip NavigationMenu
  • What’s On
  • About us
    • Our Missions and Values
    • Green Gate
    • Policies
    • The Team
    • The Board
    • Jobs
    • Archive
  • Community
    • Open Gate
    • Artists and Partners
    • Young Associates
    • Prayer Workshop
    • Artists Support
  • Support Us
    • Ways to Give
      • Join Our Supporters Scheme
      • Corporate Support
      • Donate now
    • Our Supporters
  • Your Visit
    • Booking Tickets
    • Ways to Save
    • Getting to Camden
    • Accessibility
  • Contact Us
  • Blog
  • Search
    Search
    Close this search box.
  • My Account
  • Basket

Bootycandy | Black Out

Close up of a smiling, wide-eyed, bare-chested black man, with a glowing purple lollipop in his mouth. The background behind him is bright, multi-coloured and full of sparkles

As part of the run of Bootycandy, Gate Theatre is hosting its first ever Black Out performance. Black Out is a performance in which the theatre space is curated and held for Black audience members.

The UK premiere of Robert O’Hara's Bootycandy is a semi-autobiographical, kaleidoscopic, Black queer fever dream of connected vignettes, directed by Gate Theatre Associate Artist Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu (For Black Boys…)

The initiative was originated by American playwright Jeremy O. Harris during the Broadway run of Slave Play in 2019 (directed by Robert O’Hara, playwright of Bootycandy), and then brought to London during the run of his show Daddy at Almeida Theatre. because he felt it was important for Black theatregoers to be able to experience sitting in a theatre space where the whole audience looks like them. You can learn more about the initiative by clicking here.

While this performance has been curated specifically for Black audiences, no one is excluded from attending. Click here to read our FAQs.

The following is an estimation, and is intended only as guidance, more accurate information will be available closer to the show opening:

Content guidance: swearing; racist, homophobic and ableist language;  outdated terms for disabilities; references to genitalia, sex and sexual acts; references to grooming and to sexual abuse of a young teenager; mention of rape; the threat of murder; graphic description of stabbing; nudity; the threat of sexual assault; discussion of a rape and suicide 
Age guidance: 18+
Duration estimation: 2 hrs 30 mins, with one interval

Accessibility

For more information about our new wheelchair accessible and step free home in Camden, and how to get there, click here.

Get Tickets

Friday 24 February, 7.30pm

£18 full price
£15 Equity members, 60+
£12.50 Access patrons, Camden residents / workers, Under 26s, Students
£5 Unwaged / Unemployed

TICKET SELECTION ⬇️

Bootycandy performs from 13 February until 11 March, tickets for all other performance dates are available via the main show page, click here.

Cast & CREATIVES

Loading...
Bimpe
Bimpé Pacheco
Bimpé Pacheco is a rising actor recently graduated from Mountview Academy (MA Acting). Previously trained in musical theatre, Bimpé’s credits include BBTA Nominated production Run It Back (Talawa), Blank Walls (BFI Academy), The DEN (FAITH Drama), Dark Arts - assisting Paul Harris (Harry Potter Wand Combat); taught under the likes of Ché Walker, Danny Saparni and Rycardo Gomez (Empire Dance Crew). Bimpé has worked as an assistant director (RADA Festival, Cockpit Theatre), choreographer (Indigo O2, OhSoCheryll), dancer (Fuse ODG, Da Beatfreakz, Jackky Bhagnani), and was a member of Royal Court's 2021 Writers Group. (she/her)
Read Bio
Prince kundai headshot - credit yellowbellyphotos
Prince Kundai
Prince Kundai, a recent graduate of the Royal Central School Of Speech and Drama, makes his London Theatre debut in Bootycandy. His credits whilst training include Mack The Knife in Simon Stephens version of ThreePenny Opera. (he/him)
Read Bio
Actror headshot photographer: kirill kozlov, london 2021
DK Fashola
Credits: Much Ado About Nothing (Royal Shakespeare Company 22), Mami Wata - Rehearsed Reading (Roundhouse 22), Nadia’s Gift Film (Jack Studio Theatre 20), Fragments Of A Complicated Mind (Theatre 503 ’20`), Mami Wata - WIP (Bush Theatre 19) Movement Direction: Fashola specialises in multi-form storytelling; fusing movement, poetic multi-layered text and theatre in unexpected ways She’s excited about work which leads with instincts, is raw and allows, investigates and explores voices from underrepresented niches and communities. Recent work includes Kola Nut (Bush Theatre 22), Much Ado About Nothing (Royal Shakespeare Company 22), The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart (Royal Exchange Manchester 21), Lava (Bush Theatre 21), Othello (NYTRep 21), Birds & Bees (Theatre Centre ’20) and Scalped (Without Walls National Tour ’19).
Read Bio
Luke wilson
Luke Wilson
Luke’s stage credits include THE MOUNTAINTOP (Chipping Norton Theatre), MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (RSC), ROCKETS AND BLUE LIGHTS (NATIONAL THEATRE), SCOTTSBORO BOYS (West End), and TWELFTH NIGHT (Southwark Playhouse), amongst many others.
Read Bio
Roly botha headshot
Roly Botha
Transgender and gender non-confirming people, particularly trans femmes of the Global Majority, are currently facing an unrelenting attack on their rights and dignity. Please support those at risk by donating to crowdfunding drives or to organisations such as Gendered Intelligence, Not A Phase, and Exist Loudly. Roly’s theatre credits include: On Railton Road (Brixton Pansies); Snowflake (Lowry); Death and Dancing (King’s Head); Cascando (Barbican); Ghost Stories (Lyric Hammersmith); Making Fatiha (Camden People’s Theatre); Skylight (tour); CARE (Vaults); Strangers In Between (Trafalgar Studios) Radio includes: Doctor Who - Susan’s War (Big Finish); A Funeral Of Plumes And Lights (BBC) Television includes: Secret Life Of Boys (CBBC); Doctors, Eastenders, Casualty (BBC) Roly is an associate artist of the award-winning physical theatre and devising ensemble The PappyShow. (they/them)
Read Bio
Loading...
Robert O’Hara – Writer
Robert O'Hara (he/him) has received the NAACP Best Play and Best Director Award, the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play, two Obies and the Herb Alpert Award, as well as a Tony Nomination for Slave Play. As a Director, his theatre credits include many world premieres: Jeremy O. Harris’ Slave Play, Nikkole Salter and Dania Guiria’s In the Continuum, Tarell McCraney’s The Brother/Sister Plays (Part 2), Colman Domingo’s Wild with Happy, Kirsten Childs’ Bella: An American Tall Tale, Ross Baum and Angelica Cheri’s Gun and Powder; and his own plays, Bootycandy, Mankind, and Insurrection: Holding History. His upcoming projects include: directing O'Neill’s Long Day's Journey into Night, directing Anthony Davis’s opera X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, writing and directing a series for Netflix/Ryan Murphy and writing and directing a feature film adaptation of his original play, Barbecue for Anonymous Content.
Read Bio
Milla Clarke – Designer
Milla Clarke (she/her) was the winner of the Linbury Prize for Stage Design in 2015. Other awards include Lord Williams Prize for Design and The Prince of Wales Design Scholarship. She trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, graduating with a first class BA hons degree in Theatre Design. For Gate Theatre, theatre credits include: A Small Place. As Designer, theatre credits include: Macbeth (The Reykjavik City Theatr); Ivy Tiller: Vicar’s Daughter, Squirrel Killer (Mischief Festival, RSC); Red Ellen (Northern Stage); Isla (Theatr Clwyd); La Traviata (Nevill Holt); La bohème (ENO: Drive & Live); The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil (co-designed with Chloe Lamford for The New Zealand Festival Theatre); Yolk and Aliens (co-created with Jane Horrocks, Molly Vivian and Francesca Levi for Brighton Festival); Curious (co-designed with Rosie Elnile for Soho Theatre); Mr Burns, Gone Too Far (Guildhall); There Are No Beginnings (Leeds Playhouse); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (National Youth Theatre); Europe, You Got Older (LAMDA); Inside Bitch, Bad Roads, B, Human Animals (Royal Court); Beginners (Unicorn Theatre); Elephant (Birmingham Rep); Outside and Out of Water (Orange Tree Theatre); The Tide Whisperer (National Theatre Wales); Highway One (August 012 / Wales Millennium Centre); Frogman (Curious Directive, Traverse Theatre); Paul Bunyan, The Day After, Trial by Jury (English National Opera).
Read Bio
Jahmiko Marshall – Lighting Designer
Jahmiko Marshall is a Lighting and Sound Designer from Bermuda. He obtained his Lighting Technology Certificate from Stagecraft Institute of Las Vegas. He is currently a student at LAMDA studying towards his BA Hons in Production and Technical Arts. Before arriving in London, Jahmiko was heavily involved in light design for all the productions at his High School in Bermuda which is where he developed his passion for theatre. Previous productions he has worked on include: LAMDA Boy (Role: Assistant Lighting Designer) LAMDA Parliament Square (Role: Sound Designer) LAMDA Junkyard (Role: Programmer) LAMDA Spalding Suite (Role: Chief LX) LAMDA Love and Information (Role: Chief LX) LAMDA Desert Boy (Role: Sound Designer) LAMDA The Light (Role: Sound Designer) LAMDA AGAINST (Role: Lighting Designer) LAMDA The welkin (Role: Lighting Designer) New Diorama Theatre For Black Boys Who Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy (Assistant Sound Designer) The Royal court For Black Boys Who Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy (Assistant Sound Designer)
Read Bio
Raniah Al-Sayed – Intimacy Coordinator
Raniah originally trained as an actor, working for many years in London and New York before falling in love with the physical acting process of Lucid Body. She began working as a movement-practitioner-acting-teacher in 2013 and currently teaches for The Globe Theatre and Drama Studio London, as well as offering courses through her own company, Lucid Body London. She found a natural progression into Movement Direction and on further to Intimacy Direction in the last few years. Intimacy Director: Peaky Blinders: The Rise (Immersive Everywhere), Supernova (Theatre503); How A City Can Save The World (Sheffield People’s Theatre); at Guildhall School of Music and Drama – Hyde & Seek, Our Town, Dennis of Penge, Intimate Apparel, Road, Pilgrims; at Conti Arts - Harvest, The Welkin, New Labour, Great Britain. Intimacy Coordinator for film/tv: The Wife and Her House Husband (Dir. Marcus Markou); I’m Not Finished (Dir. Rebecca Gallon); Salt Wounds (Dir. Hannah Renton); Remi Milligan: Lost Director (Dir. Samuel Lodato); Break the Rule (LCC, Dir. Beata Jamroziak); Asst I.C. on Dreamland (Merman Prods, Dir. Ellie Heydon)
Read Bio
Wabriya King – Dramatherapist
No Bio
Tatenda Shamiso – Assistant Director
Tatenda Shamiso is a theatre-maker, director, writer, and musician with origins from Zimbabwe, Belgium, the United States and Switzerland. He is also a scholarly researcher in Afrofuturism. and its potential to deconstruct and rebuild our notions of gender, space, and time. Central to Tatenda's work are themes of community, identity, and joy within diaspora. He recently wrote and starred in his solo show NO I.D. at Theatre Peckham, and was assistant director on A Streetcar Named Desire at the Almeida. Tatenda is also a recent Associate Artist and current guest lecturer in the Theatre and Performance Department at Goldsmiths, University of London. (he/him)
Read Bio
Daniel Bailey – Creative Associate
Daniel Bailey is a Director, Dramaturg and Writer for stage and screen. He is currently Associate Artistic Director at the Bush Theatre, London, having joined the team in 2019 alongside Artistic Director Lynette Linton. Prior roles include Associate Director at Birmingham Rep Theatre (after initially joining as part of the Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme), Resident Director at the National Theatre Studio, Associate Artist at Theatre Royal Stratford East, Resident Assistant Director at The Finborough Theatre, and on the Young Vic’s directing programme. His directing work at the Bush Theatre includes the upcoming Lenny Henry’s AUGUST IN ENGLAND (to be co-directed with Lynette Linton) which opens spring 2023, RED PITCH by Tyrell Williams (Stage Debut Award Winner 2022) and Temi Wilkey’s THE HIGH TABLE (Stage Debut Award winner 2020). I WONDER IF (presented with YV Taking Part) recently finished its run on a community tour and at the Young Vic Theatre. His work at Birmingham Rep includes Joe Penhall’s BLUE ORANGE; CONCUBINE; STUFF; I KNEW YOU; ABUELO, JUMP! WE’LL CATCH YOU; MADE IN INDIA/BRITAIN; and EXHALE. His previous directing work includes plays with Talawa Theatre Company, Manchester Royal Exchange, New Heritage Theatre, and the New Vic.
Read Bio
Keegan Curran – Production Manager
Keegan has worked in theatre and live events for many years, from production managing open air music festivals with The White Horse Project in East Lancashire to being an audio engineer on an array of events. Since graduating from The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 2014, Keegan has taken on various freelance endeavours throughout the country. Production Management Credits: A Sudden Violent Burst of Rain (Gate Theatre), Guy Manoukian (Her Majesty's Theatre), Technical Production Management for various companies including Stone Nest, SFL Group & The Theatre Channel. Sound Designer Credits: Jean Paul Gaultiers Fashion Freakshow (RGM Productions), Dogs of Europe (Belarus Free Theatre), Glory Ride (Smart Entertainment), Olivier Award Winning Baby Reindeer (Francesca Moody Productions), Our Countrys Good (Tobacco Factory Theatres), Oliver Award Winning Rotterdam (Theatre503/Trafalgar Studios), My World Has Exploded A Little Bit (Tristan Bates Theatre/Edinburgh Fringe), Infinity Pool (Plymouth Fringe/Edinburgh Fringe), The Blues Brothers: Xmas Special (Arts Theatre). PSE Credits: Mind Mangler: Member of The Tragic Circle (Mischief Theatre/Kenny Wax), One Woman Show (Wessex Grove), Dogs of Europe (Belarus Free Theatre)
Read Bio
Nikita Bala – Stage Manager
Nikita Bala is a Stage Manager and Technician who has worked in Montreal, Toronto, Malmö, Düsseldorf, and Bangalore. Since moving to London in September 2022 she has worked on Zombiegate (Theatre503) and The Glass Ceiling Beneath the Stars (Bric à Brac). Previous credits outside of London include Spun (Silk Road Institute), Reaching for Starlight (Geordie Theatre), A User's Guide to Authenticity is a Feeling (PME-Art), as well as Stage and Venue Management for the Montreal Fringe Festival, Festival TransAmeriques, and the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival. Nikita holds a BA from McGill University and is the proud recipient of the 2019 Montreal English Theatre Award for Outstanding Emerging Artist in Production. (she/her)
Read Bio
Zoe Gledhill – Assistant Stage Manager
Zoe is a London based assistant stage manager. She has a degree in English and Film from the University of Birmingham and recently graduated from Mountview’s Stage Management Diploma Course. Since leaving her studies, she has worked as an Assistant Stage Manager on To Kill a Mockingbird (Gielgud Theatre), Sad Book (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Hamilton (Victoria Palace Theatre) and A night with Boy Blue (The Barbican Centre).
Read Bio
Dan Britton – Assistant Stage Management (Placement)
My name is Dan Britton, and I am currently a student at RADA specialising in stage management. I recently stage managed on a production of ‘The Effect’ written by Lucy Prebble. More recently, I was the deputy stage manager on a touring adaptation of Sheakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’ for young audiences. I am very excited to be undertaking my placement with The Gate Theatre in assisting the stage management team.
Read Bio
Duramaney Kamara – Sound Designer
Duramaney Kamara was born into a family of afro-jazz musicians, becoming infatuated with instruments, live music and production from a young age. His childhood home was filled with reggae, jazz and afro-beat, which continue to influence his composition and music production to this day. As a child Duramaney performed with his parents in gigs around London, developing a multi-disciplinary talent for playing instruments, his favourite being the trumpet. At 6 years old he began writing and producing songs on GarageBand and as a teenager was invited to create music in professional studios for artists around London. Duramaney, aka 'D L K' is also a recoding artist and producer who releases music under his indie label 'Breaking Bread & Boundaries', founded in 2018. He released his debut EP, 'F*ck It Let's Move' in 2019, which peaked at #1 in the UK iTunes pre-order charts. He most recently co-produced two tracks on Mostack's latest album, 'High Street Kid 2' which made it into the UK Top 40, D L K is set to release more of his own music.   Duramaney is also an actor. He had his stage debut in 2016 at the Almeida in Leo Butler's Boy and had his screen debut in 2018 in Idris Elba's feature film 'Yardie'. He continues to work as an actor alongside composition and music production.
Read Bio
Malik Nashad Sharpe – Movement Dramaturg
Malik Nashad Sharpe is a London-based choreographer and dancer making performances under their alias Marikiscrycrycry. Operating with an expansive and emotional choreographic proposition, their work is about the socially radical practice of imagining new worlds; dances that motorise the conditions necessary for possibility and futurity; performances that double as survival rituals; performances that drip with meaning, texturising all the affective and infective material left behind. Their work integrates pessimism and optimism, minimalism and maximalism, soft and sweet, hyperreal and absurdist ontological propositions with various dance and choreographic practices. Their identity is often central to their work as the site and receptacle of maintained racial and gender based violence, frequently recalling, reneging, and reifying their experiences being Black, Vincentian/Caribbean-American, gender non-conforming, femme, Queer, immigrant with a felt transgenerational history of displacement, alienation, and allostatic load, in order to humanise another possibility, worlds of ulteriorly. They have performed their work in various venues across the UK, USA, and Canada, and have been supported by Arts Council England, Canadian Council for the Arts, a-n, Fierce Festival, Hackney Showroom, Chisenhale Dance Space, Live Art Development Agency, and Marlborough Theatre and Pub, and have performed with various artists like Last Yearz Interesting Negro, Rachael Young, Project O, SPIT!, Randy Reyes, Dalston Ballet, amongst many others. They’ve also taught workshops and courses around their dance practice at University of Illinois (USA), Glasgow School of Art (UK), Otion Front Studio (USA), The Workroom (UK), Gibney Dance (USA), Goldsmiths University (UK), CLOUD at Danslab (NL), Leeds Beckett University (UK), Tate Modern (UK), and School of New Dance Development (NL). Their newest work (in collaboration with Ellen Furey), SOFTLAMP.autonomies premieres at Theatre La Chapelle (CA) in April 2018.
Read Bio
Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu – Associate Artist & Director

Tristan is a Queer Black British-born Ghanaian cultivated by South London. He is a writer and director with a practice that specializes in storytelling, physicality, manipulation of music, breaking the fourth wall and exercising the imagination of both actor and audience. He has made work for the Royal Court, Young Vic, Bush Theatre, Guildhall School of Music & Drama among others, and performed at the National Theatre. In 2019, he won the JMK Award for directing and presented the 5-star revival of Arinze Kene’s Little Baby Jesus.  He is the co-director of the trailblazing For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy by Ryan Calais Cameron.

(he/him)

Read Bio

“Bootycandy” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. on behalf of Samuel French Ltd. www.concordtheatricals.co.uk

Join the conversation

Loading...
Close up of a smiling, wide-eyed, bare-chested black man, with a glowing purple lollipop in his mouth. The background behind him is bright, multi-coloured and full of sparkles

Bootycandy

Read More
A multi-coloured disco ball surrounded by swirling flames

HOT IN HERE (an energy-generating dance party)

Read More
Three people in a room DJing, holding a microphone and sitting looking at their mobile phone

Brassic FM

Read More

Box office: 020 7229 0706

Gate Theatre
26 Crowndale Road
Camden
London NW1 1TT

Design by Matt Travis
Built by Apphut

Newsletter sign up

Twitter Facebook Instagram Youtube
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies Policy
  • Site Map

Supported by

Print
Jerwood arts website blue

The Gate Theatre Company is a company limited by guarantee registered in England & Wales No. 1495543 – Charity No. 280278

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. - Cookie Policy