Bunker Talks Spotlight : Zodwa Nyoni
On 15th July 2025, Bunker Talks made a very significant move to the Grosvenor East building in order to delve into the research and writing of Manchester Met Scriptwriting Lecturer, Zodwa Nyoni.
On 15th July 2025, Bunker Talks made a very significant move to the Grosvenor East building in order to delve into the research and writing of Manchester Met Scriptwriting Lecturer, Zodwa Nyoni.
Alongside the production of her play Liberation at the Royal Exchange, Zodwa presented a talk illuminating her routes as a writer and academic, as well as the ways in which she uses research to develop characters and build audience connection. Monique Touko, the shows’ director also joined the Q&A portion of the talk to discuss how Zodwa’s writing and research informed working with the creative team of the production.
The play has attracted international audiences, eighteen students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the US (Xavier in New Orleans and Morehouse in Atlanta) saw the play as part of their summer school. They’ve visited the People’s History Museum, learned about Cottonopolis from The Guardian, repatriation of artifacts and community engagement from Manchester Museum; and looked at the anti-slavery archives at the John Rylands library.
They met Zodwa and talked about turning research into stories, dramaturgy and black writers, the state of new writing, cultivating diverse audiences, documenting black British history and the global addiction of American culture and figures.
In relation to the play and place Zodwa has stated
‘I actually came to view the building before it opened and it was under construction so I could go into Grosvenor East. So I decided to create maps of the city (especially around the university) for myself to locate the play and reimagined where the characters walked. I took archival pictures and embedded them into those maps and had it up on my wall as I was writing.’
Is research enough to give a feel of a real person?
There were over 200 delegates at the 1945 Pan African Congress and Zodwa’s play concentrates on 10 whose stories were drawn from Congress archives, diaries, official biographies and correspondence.
Zodwa and Monique discussed how the ethnicities of some roles intersected with acting talent in order to pull together the perfect cast. There was also an interesting discussion of the role of historical and contemporary activism in the storytelling for the actors and creative team.
Leonie Elliott – Alma La Badie
Eric Kofi Abrefa – Kwame Nkrumah
Rudolphe Mdlongwa – Makumalo Hlubi
Tonderai Munyevu – Jomo Kenyatta
Tachia Newall – Len Johnson
Pamela Nomvete – Amy Ashwood Garvey
Joshua Roberts-Mensah – Joe Appiah
Bex Smith – Betty Dorman
Nicola Stephenson – Dorothy Pizer
Eamonn Walker – George Padmore
The Pan African Congress in Manchester Archives
This is the first of four Black History Month blogs, all focusing on the Pan-African Congress of 1945 held here in Manchester. In this refreshed blog (originally posted in 2019) Holly Randhawa, at the time on work placement at the Abdul Iqbal Ullah Centre, writes about 1945’s Congress, underlining the importance of combatting colonial nostalgia.
Pan-African Speakeasy
The 15th of July was also significant as it was the first time the Royal Exchange had held a black out performance, with many audience members attending both the Bunker Talk and the Speakeasy.
This Pan African Speakeasy is an invitation for Black audience members to attend a performance of LIBERATION on Tuesday 15 July, 7.30pm. It is a welcoming space in which a Black-identifying audience* can experience, discuss and ‘speak-easy’ about theatre, collectively addressing and fully engaging with themes that may reflect their lived experience and that of historically marginalised communities.
In a talk at Aviva Studios as part of Manchester International Festival, Monique had spoken about the importance nights which allow black audiences a level of comfort in space where they were historically made to feel unwelcome , whilst allowing audiences an opportunity for a an experience where they aren’t in the minority. London and West End theatres have done this previously for shows including Tambo and Bones, and Slave Play leading to widespread public and political discussion about the practice.
The Bunker talk was recorded and will be available to view online from late July 2025
Images: Courtesy of Royal Exchange Theatre, Zodwa Nyoni, Cerys Wrigley & AHEAD
