Exploring Black masculinity through Beyoncé lyrics on the Chichester stage

The play is Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz, performed and written by Nathan Queeley-Dennis, directed by Dermot Daly, and it is coming to Chichester’s Minerva Theatre from Thursday to Saturday, November 21-23.

Winner of the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2022, Nathan’s debut play comes offered as a love letter to Birmingham, exploring Black masculinity through Beyoncé lyrics, techno raves and the deeply intimate relationship between a man and his barber.

“It's a one-person show and it won an award. It started off as a play about someone finding a purpose in life and agency. I wrote it as a three-minute monologue in 2018 and I have now developed it into a full-form play. The initial thing when I was writing it was because I was wanting to enter a monologue competition. I never really had an end goal, and the monologue was just really about somebody getting ready to go on a date. It was this character and he was a happy go lucky, glass half full kind of person. He was very optimistic and excited. I suppose that character has changed a bit since then as the play has developed. It is still the same heart and soul but the story back then only really had the context of the one date and things have developed since then.”

Birmingham is important to it all: “It is set in Birmingham and you've got all the references. The play isn't about Birmingham. It is more the fact that Birmingham is the background to where the play is set. I just don't feel that there is enough representation of the city of Birmingham in culture generally. I'm not sure why. I don't have an answer to that. But I think often it gets shunned. It has a bad reputation for no specific reason but it is a lovely city and a lot of great things come out of Birmingham. It is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the country having been around the country. It is vibrant. There is a lot of creativity that you can find in different corners. It has got the scale and the drive of London without the tourist spectacle that you have in London and there's certainly humour there in Birmingham.”

Nathan won the monologue competition with the piece which then went through to the national final. He didn't win the national final: “But somebody came up to me afterwards and said that they had liked it and wanted to see the full version. I wasn't sure if it was something that I wanted to do at that point but I just lied and said that I would send it. But I didn't have it. And I didn't write anything for a month or two but I was stuck in a dead end job where there wasn't a lot of joy and so I went back to the play and started expanding it. Because there was no pressure I didn't really have any idea of where I was going with it but I just took the chance to write it when I could.

“There is this big prize, the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, I submitted the work in the deadline week and I ended up winning it. From there I went to the Edinburgh Fringe last year and it sold out and then we transferred to the Royal Court last year and we had a really great run and some great reviews and now we're on the UK tour.”