Toni-Dee Paul
Toni-Dee is a theatre maker, collaborator, writer and performance artist based in Manchester. Her current practice explores identity politics, memory and culture using auto-biography as stimulus for her work thus far. Toni has previously been commissioned by Fuel and has toured her mono-dialogue Rum Punch around the North of England; she has also worked with artists such as Andy Smith and Selina Thompson. Her current show has been developed through Divergency…
My Father’s Kitchen
So welcome, welcome to my father’s kitchen…
Or at least, this is how I remember it…
Exploring home-cooked food and family trees, whilst delving into the stories that unfold in her father’s kitchen, the show examines the relationship between a young black british daughter and her estranged father, and the journey that follows 12 years on, whilst reflecting on hundreds of years of Jamaican history through memory & poetry.
My Father’s Kitchen is currently a 20 minute work-in-progress piece of spoken word theatre, at its half-way mark in development. The piece was originally devised in collaboration with an academic brief, and an exploration into personal genealogy alongside the history of colonial islands, which shaped the initial research of the work. Toni-Dee is due to develop the work over 2017, commissioned by and presenting at both SICK! Festival and Works Ahead.
Developed as a Divergency micro-commission with support from hÅb + STUN (Sustained Theatre Up North).
An adventure through time, culture and cuisine. Delivered with emotion and empathy, this solo performance makes connections to personal and political issues and offers a taste into someone else’s world.
Audience member
…spins a yarn with such warmth and intimacy.
Audience member