The Floor Mag sat down with playwright, Joy Nesbitt and assistant director, Marley-Rose Liburd to discuss the production’s use of Hoodoo tradition, its ties to the diaspora, and the importance of portraying Black women as ordinary.

As an actor, dub poet, and musician, Shepherd has been integral to contemporary Jamaican storytelling. And now he’s returning to the screen for Possession, the ambitious new drama filmed between Jamaica and the UK, directed by Storm Saulter and written by Karla Crome.

The embedment of queerness into a seemingly romantically heterosexual story was a great touch, which I think appealed to the audience in a way other love stories on stage don’t. As soon as the host (Michael Rishawn) addressed the “gays” in the audience, there were a significant number of cheers! Representation is essential in contemporary art, and that expands beyond race.

For Ajufo, stepping into Tracey's trainers has been both exciting and unexpectedly emotional. "She's hilarious," she says with a laugh. "The first thing that drew me to her was how funny she is. She's got this confidence and this mouth on her that makes everything entertaining." But as rehearsals progressed, another side of Tracey began to emerge.

“I've observed the rituals of several diaspora families, and I feel like there's definitely some of that that's come in. But I think you know from my day to day, my husband brings me tea most mornings and that's I think something that comes from his ritual from his grandparents and from his background. I think Caribbean people and people from the diaspora in general, are very much ritualistic and routine based.”

We sat down with theatre star and actress Jasmine Elcock to discuss working on her first ever feature film, Sunny Dancer, acting alongside Bella Ramsey and being vulnerable in a new way.

The relationship that Jesus and Judas share is something that Huntley and the wider team really worked to show that it was “rooted first and foremost and fundamentally in love”. Like many actors Huntley never wants to attach the moniker of ‘bad person’ to the roles he plays, he believes this strrongly about Judas and his wider character as he has been known as “the ultimate betrayer for millennia.”

Though the characters are completely different, their stories are parallel, in a sense that the adolescent pressure to be accepted can easily influence you to mold yourself into someone that is so far from your core being.

“I didn't know about the Backrooms. I’d heard a bit about liminal spaces and how they were creepy and what they were, but not that much,” explains Chiwetel Ejiofor regarding his prior knowledge of the lore behind the box-office smash, Backrooms. Welcome to the YouTube Renaissance. From the Australian-Greek ‘RackaRacka’ brothers Danny and Michael Philippou gifting us unique horror films Talk To Me and Bring Her Back, to the recently debuted American Kane Parsons aka ‘Kane Pi

“I was really excited about what was coming next, but also really terrified. It was very much like uncharted territory in both ways, and I think that also applied to romantic relationships. Uni is one of the first places where a lot of people get to explore that on their own terms, and so I think there was also that in the air, and always like being with my friends to kind of share stories about the many situations we found ourselves in, and like how ridiculous they were too.

“It's a huge honour for them (the RSC) to receive the story that we're telling as Black people… to be able to truly bring work and art that may not be seen in certain spaces and change people's perceptions and let them know that the continent is amazing. We have stories that are so rich in culture and history, and they are Earth changing.”

An Ideal Husband has since been revived in multiple iterations, both on screen and on stage. What made this different to the previous iterations, such as the 1999 film, was the very obvious fact that all the characters were written to be black instead. I like the way that this turned the story on its head, as nobody seemed out of place, despite the fact that if we were in the 1800’s they [characters] wouldn’t be in the positions of wealth and power that they were in.

On her actual time spent on the series (Gbemi won’t mention how far she made it), “it felt like low level torture in places,” reflecting on what it was like to hold back laughter around fellow comedy writers and comedians.

In series two, following her son’s death, Marsha isolates herself in rural Scotland. Her peaceful stay is interrupted when her seemingly sweet neighbours aren’t who they appear to be. She is composed and somewhat calm when essentially in Adams’s own words “fighting for survival.”

“…That's the cool thing about this film, I don't think we're posing any answer(s), but just asking some questions and playing the truth of any human that finds themselves, you know, on the wrong side of the justice system.” says Jonsson of what it was like to play Taylor; a prison inmate just trying to keep his head down ahead of his impending early release.

I've always wanted to be Lady Macbeth, but we broke down how many scenes she has, and like, the fact that she is there to aid Macbeth's story. And it's not really her story. It's not about her. And these are characters that I've wanted to be so badly. And it's like, we are never at the centre of these stories, really.

Last week, we sat with down with Mojisola Kareem; Artistic Director of Utopia Theatre to discuss it's latest production Crown of Blood, a Yoruba retelling of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, starting its run at Sheffield Theatres. We discussed Kareem's professional journey, alongside the themes and process behind putting a play like Crown of Blood together.

The play, originally written by Arthur Miller in 1947, follows a family dealing with the loss of a family member as well as wartime secrets amongst them that become unveiled.

For choreographer and dancer Leah Hill, this moment is a long time coming; Ebony Scrooge at Sadler’s Wells newly opened site in East London will be her first time leading in a stage production. ZooNation’s Ebony Scrooge is a fresh adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Choreographed by Dannielle ‘Rhimes’ Lecointe (ZooNation’s Associate Artistic Director) and with original music by Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante (Boy Blue), this is truly a meeting of some of the best creatives on the sce

We speak to the screenwriter of Mr Loverman, Nathaniel Price. His earlier credits include Noughts & Crosses (BBC), Tin Star (Sky) and The Outlaws (BBC/Amazon). We spent some time discussing being part of BAFTA’s Breakthrough cohort this year, his experiences with screenwriting for Mr Loverman and other hurdles that he encountered on his journey.