Big Aunty, the Coventry Belgrade’s first home-produced show in the spring season, is a darkly comic drama following the story of an estranged family who are brought together for a funeral. What’s On recently caught up with three of the show’s creatives to find out more...   

New show Big Aunty, which premieres at Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre this month, uses the experiences of one family to focus on shared grief and resolution.

When matriarch Big Aunty dies, her children come together to bury her. Travelling from England to Jamaica are daughter Naomi and her two adopted brothers, Marcus and Shaun. But they are by no means a united front - estranged over long periods of time, will their shared sorrow be the catalyst for rebuilding their family?

The show, which features music, physical theatre and drama, has been devised by a team including Belgrade Creative Director Corey Campbell and Birmingham-based actors Alexia McIntosh and Keiren Hamilton-Amos, along with a group of community performers.

Corey, who is directing the show, says the darkly comic tale reflects both shared and personal experience. 

“On a macro level and thematically, Big Aunty allows people the space to look at all we’ve gone through as a collective over the past three years,” he says. “We’ve had a lot of grief, we’ve had a lot of mourning, changes of leadership, global pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, the death of our monarch, and we’ve kind of just shuck back into some kind of reality to get through it. 

“And then, on the micro level, the show puts a microscope on a youngish black family who have lost their matriarch in the same way the country has lost its matriarch in the Queen. Within the family there’s politics and drama, in the same way as there’s politics and drama in the royal family.”

The story reveals how the death of Big Aunty becomes the catalyst for a family reunion.

“So there are three siblings, two who are adopted into the family and one who is born of mum and dad, and the play looks at how they reconcile through grief. And amongst that is the joy of reconciliation, the joy of memory, and how people live on through memory.

“Big Aunty is also looking at the drama of how long you’re allowed to grieve for, and when is it time to get back to work? It looks at family politics - what happens when there are secrets in the family, and who gets the blame for that? 

“It also finds pockets of joy, as we do in the darkest hours, and looks into the normality of tomorrow, because tomorrow still has to happen.”

The trio of actors have been working since March on devising the production. It’s a new experience for Alexia, whose previous roles include Anna of Cleves in Six The Musical.

“As an actor you usually go into the room and the script is already there, so all you are focusing on really is character work,” says Alexia, who grew up in Erdington and studied at Birmingham School of Acting. “But in a devised piece, you’re also a writer, you’re directing, lighting, sound, and you’re thinking about how the story is perceived by the audience. It’s a different way of working, so there are a lot of plates that are spinning and things that you’re having to delve into that you wouldn’t necessarily when you are just coming in as an actor. 

“It’s been amazing to come out of musical theatre, which is quite structured, and to work with Keiren and Corey because now we’re delving into what a character wants and the reaction and the emotion from a real place. It’s intense, but it’s great; it’s like going back to drama school! 

“I think the audience and us creators will come out of it with a deeper knowledge of grief, knowing it’s okay to face grief head-on and not run away from it. There’s a lot coming out of the rehearsal space that I didn’t necessarily anticipate.”

For Keiren, who most recently played the lead role in Birmingham Rep production GrimeBoy, the devising process has also been a learning curve.

“There are no rules to creativity as long as you are being coherent in your storytelling and making sure the audience comes along on the journey,” he says. “Devising allows you to understand the craft that you’ve learnt in more structured plays, but it allows you to break all of those rules. It allows you to really dig into yourself and find out why something can or can’t happen.” 

Although the story focuses on a Jamaican family, it could be any family’s experience of conflict and loss, says Keiren, who grew up in Birmingham’s Newtown and studied at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.  

“It may have lots of Jamaican elements to it, but on a wider scale, anyone from anywhere can sit down and say ‘Yeah, that was me, or that was mum or aunty.’

“The thing that really shows is the reality of grief. Even though Big Aunty has passed away, there’s so much more going on and so much life going on. So one minute you’re crying, then you’re laughing, then you’re arguing, then you’re crying again.”

The different experiences of the community cast have also fed into the story.

“We couldn’t really do this show without the community being involved,” says Corey, who grew up in Birmingham’s Alum Rock. “It’s part of the way we work at the Belgrade and part of my practice. 

“And this show is about community and about that collective grief and collective memories. The community company are doing a lot of our singing with us. They bring a lot of the comedic flow, and they are sharing their experiences.

“The show works because of that diversity of experience. The real reason for diversity isn’t just for the sake of a buzz word but because art requires different voices. It literally grows and gets better when there are different noises in a space.”

And the team hope that the sharing and exchanging of experience will also involve the audience. 

“My hope has always been that the audience takes away from the show that it’s okay to display emotion,” says Corey. “And I want the audience to get the importance of reconciliation. We know our days are numbered - we don’t know whether we will see tomorrow - so whatever politics you have or nonsense you have with your siblings, don’t wait until they are in the ground to sort it out. Find a time for forgiveness before it’s too late.”

by Diane Parkes

Big Aunty shows at Belgrade Theatre Coventry until Saturday 6 May