Alexia McIntosh and Kieran Hamilton-Amos join Corey Campbell in Big Aunty at Belgrade Theatre

Alexia McIntosh and Kieran Hamilton-Amos are to join Corey Campbell in Big Aunty at Belgrade Theatre.

Directed and devised by Belgrade Theatre Creative Director Campbell (Fighting Irish, Seaview, Freeman), the production will also feature a seven-person ensemble choir, drawn from the talent in the local community.

Described as a “darkly comic family drama”, Big Aunty is the first home produced show of the venue’s spring season and will play in The Belgrade’s B2 auditorium from 24 April – 6 May 2023.

Big Aunty’s dead. Her funeral’s back in Jamaica, where she returned some years ago. The children she brought up together long ago, but have lost touch and gone their separate ways, are now forced to come together again, all these years later.

Big Aunty was the matriarch – a Mum to some, a ‘second’ Mum to others. She took in waifs and strays from reckless parents when they had nowhere else to go, and she gave them a home. But now she’s gone and there’s a Big Aunty-shaped hole in everyone’s world.

Now they’ll need to confront, not just each other, but their difficult pasts, and uncertain futures.

Can they finally lay their differences to rest along with Big Aunty?

The creative team includes Sarah Githugu as assistant director, Claire Winfield as set designer, Joe Hornsby as lighting designer, Auden Allan as sound designer and Emma Barber as casting director. Joelle Ikwa is the community producer and choir leader.

Corey Campbell said: “As a devising artist, I often use theatre to help express who I am, but right now I see so many people in the same place as me. A lot of us have experienced loss over the last couple of years – it feels like the whole country is mourning.

“But as the character, Big Aunty, might say: “There is no resurrection without death”, and I’m now reaching a place where I can experience some joy through the pain of loved ones lost.

“I hope Big Aunty will offer hope to people who are also on this journey forwards, and that it will give all of us an opportunity to come together and share the experience in the unique way only theatre can provide – to laugh and cry, to heal and forgive. Live, laugh, love.”

For more information and tickets, visit belgrade.co.uk