Playwright Stefanie Reynolds, whose joyful new play, Danesha, is coming to our Bramall Rock Void from 10-12 October, talks about her inspirations and how her own background has influenced her storytelling.
Stefanie Reynolds can relate to her young protagonist, Danesha, on a deep level.
She is a mixed raced, working class, neurodivergent, queer playwright and screenwriter from Manchester and Danesha is a young mixed race teenager living with her white dad in Preston. And both have questions.
Stefanie says: “When it came to writing the play I asked myself, ‘What do you want to write about?’, ‘What story do you want to tell?’ I saw a tweet that described having a connection to your roots through a Caribbean takeaway, and how inauthentic it was. It made me think about mixed race and black people who might not have a connection to their roots, heritage, or culture and how that would feel.
“I wanted to write about being mixed race and living with your white parent alone. I wanted to explore the experience of having no connection to the other side of you, despite you feeling this connection in your body, in your soul, in the way you act, the way you move. I wanted to talk about being black in a small town where there is no one like you. How do you find yourself? How do you learn about a culture that is a part of you but you have no connection to?
“I wanted to write a play for black people that was joyful. Often in plays and TV, we are exposed to our trauma time and time again. I didn’t want to do race trauma porn, I wanted to celebrate blackness and laugh. I wanted to create something that was fun. That we could all be in a room and laugh together, cry together and most importantly dance together.”
Family dynamics are something Stefanie explores in the play, particularly those of single-parent families, and the challenges of raising a mixed race child as a white parent in a majority-white community. Danesha has a great relationship with her dad but finds herself struggling to talk with him about her mum. That conversation makes him uncomfortable, leaving Danesha yearning for more.
“Through the script we’re also exploring the father-daughter dynamic, and how the traditional patriarchal structures of our society can make it so difficult for two people who love each other deeply to actually connect and communicate,” says Stefanie.
Like Danesha, Stefanie is half Jamaican and wanted to highlight same-sex relationships in West Indian culture. “Jamaica is such a wonderful, special place with a huge impact on the world – through fashion, dance, music and language. But we still face challenges within our community regarding being queer.”
Seventeen-year old Danesha has never explored her own sexuality before. Her friends had boyfriends, so she had one too. It isn’t until she meets ‘Her’ that she begins to understand love, lust, attraction. Meanwhile, ‘Her’, a year older and from a Jamaican family in a close knit community, is trying everything she can to suppress her sexuality.
Stefanie says: “I took myself to London to stay with my best friend during a week off from work and I stumbled across a reggae exhibition. It sounds like a cliché, but it’s true, that staring at those pictures and listening to the music, I saw my two characters. The dialogue poured out of me, I saw what they looked like, what they wanted from each other, their conflict. Most importantly, I saw the moment they first meet. I wanted it to be romantic, awkward, messy but cute – just like the two of them.”
Stefanie has written for scratch nights and comedy gigs in London and Manchester, as well as touring her first play Scribbles at Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Battersea Arts Centre. Her second play That Time We Got High was shortlisted for Channel 4stories, Kudos and the Royal Court Fellowship and was longlisted for the Women’s Playwriting Award. She was part of the OFFIE Award-winning series The Waves with her audio drama Baby Mama, produced by Tamasha Theatre/Holy Mountain Productions. In 2022, Stefanie completed the Royal Exchange’s six-month writing exchange programme in partnership with Warner Media and developed her first TV pilot script. She is currently developing her new one-person play Unhinged.
“I’m beyond thrilled and delighted that the world is finally getting to meet Danesha,” she concluded. “I hope this play resonates with audiences, I hope people find the joy and magic that Danesha brings, and I also hope you’re able to see yourself and feel a little less alone. This is for all the young girls that were labelled as weird or different!”
