Theresa Ikoko

Clean Break is a British theatre company set up in 1979 by two women in prison. It exists to tell the stories of women with experience of the criminal justice system and to transform women’s lives through theatre. Over 40 years, Clean Break has commissioned some of the most progressive and brilliant women writers to write ground-breaking plays, alongside developing the writing skills of the women they work with in its London studios and in prisons. This is a collection of monologues from this canon. Rebel Voices: Monologues for Women by Women celebrates the opportunities inherent when women represent themselves. Offering female performers a diverse set of monologues reflecting a range of characters in age, ethnicity and lived experience, the material is drawn from a mix of published and unpublished works. This book is for any performer who does not see themselves represented in mainstream plays, for lovers of radical women’s theatre and for rebels everywhere who believe that the act of speaking and being heard can create change.

Five characters share a common thread: Joanne. But it's not about her. It's about Stella, whose tomorrow is as far away as winter from summer. It's the way Grace finds her song on the footpath between two cars. It's about Alice's MBA wasted on plugging holes, Kath's patients crawling alongside her after the night shift and it's Becky caught in the crosshairs of what's best and what's right for her students. But what about her? What about Joanne? In Joanne, five of the most exciting voices in theatre explore the pressures on our public services as one young woman buckles under pressures of her own. The play comprises five interconnected short plays for a solo performer, written by Deborah Bruce, Theresa Ikoko, Laura Lomas, Chino Odimba and Ursula Rani Sarma. Commissioned by Clean Break, Joanne premiered at Latitude Festival in 2015, before transferring to Soho Theatre, London.

“Scorchingly intelligent and as powerful as a gut punch.” The TimesThree ordinary girls, Tisana, Ruhab and Haleema. Best friends forever. All the big issues: love, sex, religion... and being kidnapped from their hometown in Nigeria. Fiercely funny and powerfully political, Theresa Ikoko's Girls explores enduring friendship, girlhood and the stories behind the headlines that quickly become yesterday’s news. Winner of the 2015 Alfred Fagon Award and 2016 George Devine Award, Girls is published in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, featuring a new introduction by Daniel Bailey.

Why is everyone so bloody obsessed with hashtags? What on earth do you want to do with a hashtag? Can you use it to shoot your way out of here? Tisana, Ruhab and Haleema are three normal teenage girls who have been best friends forever. But when they are kidnapped from their hometown, each must find their own way to survive. Girls explores enduring friendship, girlhood and the stories behind the headlines that quickly become yesterday’s news. Theresa Ikoko’s funny and fiercely passionate play is a Verity Bargate Award finalist and winner of the Alfred Fagon Award (2015) and George Devine Award (2016). Girls received its world premiere at HighTide Theatre Festival 2016 on 8 September 2016 in a production by HighTide, Soho Theatre and Talawa.