Monday (play)
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Monday is a one-woman stage play written and performed by Actress and Playwright Gloria Idahota Williams and directed by Ellie Joseph. The play was produced under the Theatre company Freedom Tongues and developed as part of the Royal Court Theatre Young Writers group. Monday premiered at four International Play festivals such as New York City, London, and Edinburgh and was shortlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award 2009.
The play starts on Monday morning with the play’s central character, Neena, getting ready for school. Neena is an 18-year-old, preparing for university who is haunted by a past experience. Neena is desperate to protect her younger half-sister from the same fate and we see how this event from Neena’s childhood affects her relationship with each member of her family, her peers at school, and her confused view of herself. The play depicts a disturbing series of events that harm and eventually destroy the world of what appears to everyone else to be a typical, church-going North London, Jamaican family. With a poetic and rhythmic writing style, the play evokes not only the individual emotions and journeys of the characters, but also the specific North London-‘speak’ of the world in which the characters live.