Manchester’s Royal Exchange is to stage the world première of Bruntwood Prize-winning play Three Birds by Janice Okoh.
The writer took first prize of £16,000 in the 2011 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting. Janice was herself born and raised and still lives in South East London. She turned to playwriting after a background in law and a career in the city.
The drama centres on siblings Tiana, Tionne and Tanika, who have found themselves home alone. Tiana's keeping it all together by taking charge of housework and homework. But Tionne's experiments are getting stranger and Tanika's starting to act up.
Announcing the winning work, chairman of the judging panel, playwright Simon Stephens, described it as being “a play of extraordinary humanity and imagination.”
Exchange artistic director Sarah Frankcom directs and the play runs from February 27 to March 16.
It then transfers to the Bush Theatre, London from March 20 to April 20.