We Need New Names

Paradise. Home of 10-year-old Darling and her friends: four children on the edge of innocence. A playground overflowing with mischief and games where they imagine countries a luxurious life away from theirs in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.

But when Darling moves to Michigan, the western world she encounters as a teenager is far from the American utopia of her dreams…

Based on the novel by the first Black African woman and first Zimbabwean to be Booker Prize-shortlisted, this defiant coming-of-age story is full of exuberance, humour and humanity.

The novel We Need New Names was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Guardian First Book Award and the Barnes & Noble Discover Award, and won a Betty Trask Award, Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, Hurston-Wright Legacy Award, the Etisalat Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction. It is now adapted for the stage for the first time.

Target audience age: 14yrs+
Contains sensitive subject matter including references to violence and rape
Running time: Approx. 1hr 50 mins plus interval