ON THE STAGE| BLACK BRITISH MUSICAL ‘BLACK POWER DESK’ ANNOUNCE CAST

By Rishma • On What is New

Black Power Desk

1st Septem­ber — 28th September

Writ­ten by Uri­elle Klein-Mekongo and Dir­ec­ted by Gbo­la­han Obisesan

 Brix­ton House Theatre, 385 Cold­har­bour Lane Brix­ton Lon­don SW9 8GL

Tick­ets HERE

Box Office: 020 7582 7680 boxoffice@brixtonhouse.co.uk

Brix­ton House and Play­Well Pro­duc­tions in asso­ci­ation with Birm­ing­ham Hip­po­drome and Salford’s Lowry today announce the nine-strong cast for the World Première of Black Power Desk by crit­ic­ally-acclaimed play­wright Uri­elle Klein-Mekongo (OLD VIC 12, ROUND­HOUSE, THE BUSH). The pro­duc­tion, Brix­ton House’s largest to date, fea­tures an ori­gin­al score played by a live band blend­ing RnB, Reg­gae, Soul and Ska.

This power­ful, vibrant and com­pel­ling new music­al fol­lows the com­plex rela­tion­ship between two sis­ters star­ring Rochelle Rose (NATION­AL THEATRE, YOUNG VIC, ROY­AL COURT) and Veron­ica Cara­bai (ROY­AL COURT THEATRE, NATION­AL THEATRE) as Celia and Dina. The ensemble cast also stars Alex­an­der Bellin­fant­ie, Tom­os Eames, Ger­el Fal­con­er, Fahad Shaft, Chanté Fauch­er, Alan Drake and Casey Bird.

 Set in 1970s Lon­don, at a time of polit­ic­al unrest and cul­tur­al trans­form­a­tion, Black Power Desk, inspired by the real-life events of the Man­grove Nine and the Brit­ish Black Power move­ment, shines a lyr­ic­al light on a rarely explored part of Brit­ish his­tory, provid­ing audi­ences with a stir­ring por­trait of the times along­side an epic and rich soundtrack of resistance.

The cast are sup­por­ted by an incred­ible cre­at­ive team which includes Dir­ect­or Gbo­la­han Obises­an (The Fish­er­man, TRA­FAL­GAR STU­DI­OS, Olivi­er-nom­in­ated Cut­ting It, ROY­AL COURT); Rap­per­turg and Lyr­i­cist Ger­el Fal­con­er (Black Brit­ish Theatre Award Win­ner 2023); Ivor Nov­ello Prize win­ner and Plat­in­um-selling song­writer Renell Shaw (Oth­ello, GLOBE; ) who col­lab­or­ated on the music and com­pos­i­tion and award-win­ning dram­at­urg Gail Babb and Alfred Fagon Awards 2025 Black Cham­pi­on of Theatre. Set Design by Nat­alie Pryce, Cos­tume Design by Jes­sica Cabassa, renowned for her col­lab­or­a­tion with Bal­let Black; Light­ing Design by Prema Mehta, the founder of StageSight and has lit over 200 stages across the UK, Europe and US in her 20 year career; Sound Design by Olivi­er-award win­ner Tony Gayle (My Neigh­bour Totoro). Move­ment Dir­ec­tion by Jade Hackett.

 Black Power Desk sits with­in Brix­ton House­’s Upris­ing Fest­iv­al, a sea­son of work com­mem­or­at­ing the 40th anniversary of the Brix­ton Upris­ing, sparked by the police shoot­ing of Cherry Groce in 1985.

This music­al was borne from a desire to delve deep­er and dis­cov­er the stor­ies from Black Brit­ish his­tory that have been left untold. My inquis­it­ive­ness led me to cre­ate a story in the con­text of the Black Brit­ish civil rights move­ment and how the estab­lish­ment tried to extin­guish it. At its heart are two sis­ters, one who is an act­iv­ist fight­ing for human­ity and the oth­er who wants to hold on to fam­ily and live their human­ity without the struggle. Told through the lens of two women with a rich 70s music­al sound­scape, I hope it will touch many hearts and stirs the soul. (Play­wright Uri­elle Klein-Mekongo )

Cast

Celia:Rochelle Rose

Dina : Veron­ica Carabai

Jar­vis: Alex­an­der Bellinfantie

Jack: Tom­os Eames

Carlton: Ger­el Falconer

Colin: Fahad Shaft  

Maya: Chanté Faucher

Officer Pul­len: Alan Drake

Officer Marks: Casey Bird

 

Cre­at­ive Team

Books, Lyr­ics and Com­pos­i­tion: Uri­elle Klein-Mekongo

Dir­ect­or: Gbo­la­han Obisesan

Lyr­ics and Rap­per­turgy: Ger­el Falconer

Music and Com­pos­i­tion: Renell Shaw

Dram­at­urgy: Gail Babb

Set Design:  Nat­alie Pryce

Cos­tume Design: Jes­sica Cabassa

Sound Design:  Tony Gayle

Light­ing Design:  Prema Mehta

Move­ment Dir­ec­tion:  Jade Hackett

Cast­ing Dir­ect­or:  Aisha Bywa­ters CDG

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Rishma

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds
Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voiceless.

About Rishma

Rishma Dhaliwal has extensive experience studying and working in the music and media industry. Having written a thesis on how Hip Hop acts as a social movement, she has spent years researching and connecting with artists who use the art form as a tool for bringing a voice to the voiceless.