BECOMING - Curated by UK Black Pride

BECOMING - Curated by UK Black Pride

To mark the 20th anniversary of UK Black Pride in summer 2025, we've invited the organisation to curate their own powerful collection of hand-picked plays. UK Black Pride is the world’s largest celebration for LGBTQIA+ Black and POC communities, advocating through art, culture, and activism.

Curated by founder and CEO Phyll Opoku-Gyimah and Head of Press Josh Rivers, this collection reflects the depth, resilience, and creativity of LGBTQIA+ Black and POC voices.

Shop the UK Black Pride Collection in Print with our National Theatre Bookshop

‘’BLACK IS COMPLEX.

BECOMING is UK Black Pride's 20th anniversary theme and reflects Black queer experiences always in motion.

Art is transformative, it's supposed to be, and my hope is that through this collaboration, more of our communities understand that. If more of our communities understand that they can be playwrights, they can be actors, they can be lighting technicians, they can participate in arts and culture, I think that would be a hugely beneficial thing for all of us.’’ - Josh Rivers

‘’BOLD, NECCESSARY, RADIANT.

This collaboration came about from an ongoing effort to tell the stories of what we see in our everyday lives. UK Black Pride is always telling stories; that is something that is really important to how we live our lives. When we don't hear stories about ourselves, we don't believe that we're part of it.’’ - Phyll Opoku-Gyimah

Phyll and Josh’s top picks

Chewing Gum Dreams by Michaela Coel

‘’The play that resonates the most with me in UK Black Pride and National Theatre at Home's BECOMING collection is Chewing Gum Dreams by Michaela Coel. So many of us got to experience the reverence and outrageousness of Michaela's work on Netflix. To see how it began is such a privilege and such an honour. It's so amazing to see black artists in progress. And so that's the play that I really want most people to see.’’ - Josh Rivers

The-Wife-of-Willesden

‘’It's a play about a Black woman saying, pass me the mic, I've got something to tell you. Sit down and you're going to listen. It kind of feels like that love story to Black women to be unapologetic.’’ - Phyll Opoku-Gyimah

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BECOMING - Curated by UK Black Pride
  • HOME
    Movie + 9 extras

    HOME

    Movie + 9 extras

    Watch Home with a theatre subscription from National Theatre at Home.

    Bullet doesn’t want to call a hostel home. Eritrean Girl was smuggled here in a lorry. Singing Boy dreams of seeing his name in lights and Garden Boy just wants to feel safe.

    Homelessness amongst young people in the UK is at...

  • Dara
    Movie + 10 extras

    Dara

    Movie + 10 extras

    Stream Dara with National Theatre at Home.

    1659 Mughal India. A ferocious war of succession rages between the heirs to the Muslim empire; two brothers with very different visions of its future.

    Shahid Nadeem's epic tale of the dispute that shaped modern-day India and Pakistan is directed by N...

  • Ķīn
    Movie + 10 extras

    Ķīn

    Movie + 10 extras

    Watch Ķīn with a theatre subscription from National Theatre at Home.

    In 1932, Leah and her family escaped persecution and embarked on a journey from Yemen to Palestine.

    Ninety years later, her grandson Amit Lahav (Artistic Director of Gecko) reflects on the life-changing decision his family ...

  • Chewing Gum Dreams
    Movie + 7 extras

    Chewing Gum Dreams

    Movie + 7 extras

    Watch Chewing Gum Dreams with National Theatre at Home.

    Meet Tracey Gordon. Friendship, sex, UK garage, school, teachers, periods, emergency contraception, raves, tampons, white boys, God, money. Friendship.

    The more she learns about the world the less she understands. Michaela Coel plays Trac...

  • 'Master Harold'...and the boys

    Movie + 12 extras

    Watch 'Master Harold'...and the boys with a National Theatre at Home theatre subscription.

    St George's Park Tea Room, Port Elizabeth, 1950. On a long rainy afternoon, employees Sam and Willie practise their steps for the finals of the ballroom dancing championship.

    Hally arrives from school ...

  • Death of England :Delroy

    Movie + 10 extras

    Unapologetically upwardly mobile and working as a bailiff, Delroy’s life spirals out of control on one surreal day as he races to get to the hospital where his girlfriend Carly is about to give birth.

    'Raw, gutsy and exhilarating' (★★★★ Evening Standard)

    Starring Paapa Essiedu, Death of Engla...

  • The Wife of Willesden
    Movie + 10 extras

    The Wife of Willesden

    Movie + 10 extras

    Stream The Wife of Willesden play with National Theatre at Home.

    A proper local legend. Married five times. Mother. Lover. Aunt. Friend. Alvita will tell her life story to anyone in the pub – there’s no shame in her game. The question is: are you ready to hear it? Because this woman’s got the gi...

  • Othello (2022)
    Movie + 11 extras

    Othello (2022)

    Movie + 11 extras

    Watch Othello, a play by Shakespeare with National Theatre at Home.

    Take your seats for Shakespeare’s most enduring tragedy, Othello.

    Directed by Clint Dyer with a cast that includes Giles Terera (Hamilton), Rosy McEwen (The Alienist), Paul Hilton (The Inheritance) and Tanya Franks (Mum).

    Wh...

  • Everyman
    Movie + 9 extras

    Everyman

    Movie + 9 extras

    Stream Everyman with a theatre subscription from National Theatre at Home.

    Everyman is successful, popular and riding high.

    When Death comes calling, he is forced to abandon his hedonistic life and embark on a frantic search to find a friend that will speak in his defence. But with Death clos...

  • Three Sisters
    Movie + 9 extras

    Three Sisters

    Movie + 9 extras

    Watch Chekhov's play Three Sisters with National Theatre at Home.

    Nigeria, 1967. Three sisters, grieving the loss of their father, long to return to their former home in Lagos as conflict encroaches on their provincial village.

    Chekhov’s iconic characters are relocated to Nigeria on the brin...