Biyi Bandele

A few months ago fourteen-year-old Ali Banana was apprenticed to a whip-wielding blacksmith in his rural hometown. Burma Boy is a horrific, vividly realised account of the madness, the sacrifice and the dark humour of the Second World War's most vicious battleground.

Celebrating 10 years of the London New Play Festival, featuring six plays: Wild Turkey by Joe Penhall: Two small businessmen struggle to keep their flagging burger bar afloat, in the face of increasingly savage and bizarre forces. Everlasting Rose by Judy Upton: Terrified of ageing, a caravan Casanova changes wives every decade, until a woman of the 90's challenges his routine. Strindberg Knew My Father by Mark Jenkins: Life becomes farce as Strindberg loses control over his characters while writing 'Miss Julie'. In the Fields of Aceldama by Naomi Wallace: When their only child dies in an accident, Mattie and Henry draw on her spirited past to find the strength to go on. Two Horsemen by Biyi Bandele: Baja and Langbaja trade stories about life, sex and god in a run-down shack. Will their stories sustain them, or trap them forever? Maison Splendide by Laura Bridgetman: House-sitting for gangsters, Honey and Moon enact a 'let's pretend' lesbian white wedding, parodying suburban customs.

Yorùbá Boy Running charts Samuel Ajayi Crowther's miraculous journey from slave to liberator, boy to man, running to resisting'Run, Àjàyí, run!'The day the Malian slave traders invaded the Nigerian town of Òsogùn, thirteen-year-old Àjàyí's life was split in two. Before, there was his childhood, surrounded by friends and family, watched over by the ancient Yorùbá gods of forest and water, earth and sky. After: capture, slavery - and release, into the service of a new god, his own culture left far behind. So Àjàyí becomes Samuel Crowther - missionary, linguist, minister - and abolitionist: driven to negotiate against his own people to end the miserable trade in human beings which destroyed his family. From the heart-stopping drama of Àjàyí's last day of freedom to his consecration as the first African Bishop of the Anglican Church, Biyi Bándélé's kaleidoscopic reimagining of Crowther's life is a brilliant tour de force. WITH AN INTRODUCTION FROM WOLE SOYINKA'A true artist. A brilliant writer. An original thinker' Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‘Biyi Bándélé had a prolifically talented and creative mind, shown in everything he touched. Yorùbá Boy Running is no exception’ Chiwitel EjioforCover artwork Chris Ofili, Blind Leading Blind, 2005 © The artist.

It's winter 1944 and the Second World War is entering its most crucial state. A few months ago fourteen-year-old Ali Banana was a blacksmith's apprentice in his rural hometown in West Africa; now he's trekking through the Burmese jungle. Led by the unforgettably charismatic Sergeant Damisa, the unit has been given orders to go behind enemy lines and wreak havoc. But Japanese snipers lurk behind every tree--and even if the unit manages to escape, infection and disease lie in wait. Homesick and weary, the men of D-Section Thunder Brigade refuse to give up. Taut and immediate, The King's Rifle is the first novel to depict the experiences of black African soldiers in the Second World War. This is a story of real life battles, of the men who made the legend of the Chindits, the unconventional, quick-strike division of the British Army in India. Brilliantly executed, this vividly realized account details the madness, sacrifice, and dark humor of that war's most vicious battleground. It is also the moving story of a boy trying to live long enough to become a man.

Two plays by one of Britain's most prolific young black authors Brixton Stories Ossie Jones is an immigration lawyer in Brixton, London, a place full of wordmongers, preachers and prophets. One day he falls into a coma, is arrested for a crime he has not committed and is locked up in prison with a triple-lifer. Biyi Bandele's witty and engaging play is in a world in which fantasy may, troublingly, be more real than reality. Brixton Stories premiered at The Tricycle Theatre, London, 2001. Happy Birthday, Mister Deka D 'I went for a walk. I fought in a war. I took long rides on the tube. I met someone new. We had a child. She met someone new. The seasons changed. I changed with the seasons... That's why I'm here.' Relationships are as elusive as memory iself in this poetic and lyrical play. Happy Birthday Mister Deka D premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in August 1999 and transferred to the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. Praise for Happy Birthday, Mister Deka D: "A little miracle of stillness" Independent "A perky, quirky look at love, laughter and forgetting, Mister Deka D suggests that only when you stop avoiding the issue are you able to move on" The Times