Deep Azure Tickets

Deep Azure in London!

Hip hop meets magical realism and Shakespearean drama in Deep Azure, a powerful, lyrical play from late actor and writer Chadwick Boseman. “An explosion of creative force” (WBEZChicago), Deep Azure makes its UK premiere this Winter at the Sam Wanamaker Theatre at Shakespeare’s Globe, on the historic Bankside. Drawing from shocking real-life events, the play explores grief, love and police brutality through dazzling verse. Deep Azure is a “verbal feast” (Chicago Tribune) of a play - secure your tickets today. 

What is the play Deep Azure about?

 When Azure’s fiancé, Deep, is killed on campus at their university in a shocking act of police brutality, her world is turned upside down. Struggling with an eating disorder and the weight of her unbearable grief, Azure leans on her friends Tone and Roshad to find peace. But, the heavenly MCs of Street Knowledge have other plans for her, and soon Azure is caught up in a fight for justice as she struggles to uncover the truth behind Deep’s death.

Deep Azure was written in 2005, inspired by the real-life shooting of Prince Jones, a young, unarmed man who was killed by an undercover police officer in 2000. Jones had attended Howard University with Boseman, and Deep Azure was originally conceived as a poem in response to the shooting. The play was later commissioned for development into a full-length piece by Congo Square Theatre Company, a US theatre company who promotes work from African Diaspora creatives, and works within the hip hop theatre movement. The show premiered at the Chernin Center for the Arts in Chicago in 2005 and was nominated for the 2006 Jeff Award for Best New Work. This brand new staging marks the play's UK premiere. 

Who are the cast of Deep Azure?

Casting for this production is to be announced. 

Who are the creative team of Deep Azure? 

Deep Azure is written by Chadwick Boseman (1976–2020). Boseman was an award-winning African-American actor, writer and philanthropist. As an actor, he was best known for his role as T'Challa in Black Panther, as James Brown in biopic Get On Up, and as Levee Green in the 2020 film adaptation of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom - which earned him a posthumous nomination for an Academy Award. As a writer, Boseman’s credits include Rhyme Deferred (co-written with Kamilah Forbes), which toured the US and which Boseman also performed, one man show Red Clay and Carved Concrete, also performed by Boseman at the 2002 Hip-Hop theatre festival, and Hieroglyphic Graffiti which was produced at various venues including the National Black Theatre Festival in New York.

Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu directs. Fynn-Aiduenu is an Olivier-nominated British-Ghanaian theatremaker and director. His credits include For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy at the New Diorama Theatre, the Royal Court and in the West End, Pig Heart Boy at the Unicorn Theatre and UK Tour, Bootycandy at the Gate Theatre and Sundown Kiki Reloaded at the Young Vic. 

Book Tickets for Deep Azure at the Sam Wanamaker Theatre Today!

Inspired by Shakespearean verse, hip hop and real-life events, Deep Azure “ripples with creativity, tension and anger” (Chicago Tribune). Blisteringly innovative and highly unique, this UK premiere of beloved late actor Chadwick Boseman’s moving, explosive play is an unmissable theatrical experience. This “layered, ghostly epic” (Guardian) is a breathtaking exploration of language, injustice and grief - secure your tickets to Deep Azure at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse today.