Monique Touko

New Dates Including Southbank Centre Added to UK Tour Of THE BOY AT THE BACK OF THE CLASS
by Stephi Wild - Oct 31, 2025

New dates have been announced as part of the 2026 UK Tour of The Boy at the Back of the Class.  The tour will now also play at Southampton's Mayflower Studios, Edinburgh's Festival Theatre, Eastbourne's Devonshire Park Theatre, and more.

Beverley Knight and Ntombizodwa Ndlovu Will Lead West End Premiere of MARIE AND ROSETTA at @sohoplace
by Stephi Wild - Sep 29, 2025

The West End premiere of Marie and Rosetta is set for next year. Reprising their roles are multi-award winning singer and actress Beverley Knight as Rosetta Tharpe and Ntombizodwa Ndlovu making her West End debut as Marie Knight.

JAJA'S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING and More Set For Lyric Hammersmith's 2026 Season
by Stephi Wild - Sep 15, 2025

All three are razor-sharp comedies, set across a single day, inviting audiences into vivid, pressurised worlds, and investigating how we both understand and misunderstand each other.

Manchester International Festival 2025 to Open with New Works Across the City
by Chloe Rabinowitz - Jul 3, 2025

Manchester International Festival 2025 officially gets underway at 6pm today as a herd of life-sized puppet animals stampede through the streets of Manchester to launch the festival, travelling north to flee climate disaster. Learn how to attend!

THE BOY AT THE BACK OF THE CLASS to Launch 2026 UK Tour
by Chloe Rabinowitz - Jun 20, 2025

The Boy at the Back of the Class, a celebration of friendship, kindness and compassion, is back with a 2026 UK Tour. See the list of tour dates and locations here and learn more!

Photos: Beverly Knight and Ntombizodwa Ndlovu in MARIE AND ROSETTA
by Stephi Wild - May 9, 2025

All new production images have been released for the UK premiere of George Brant’s (Grounded) critically-acclaimed Marie and Rosetta. Check out the photos here!

Full Cast Set For The World Premiere of LIBERATION at Royal Exchange Theatre
by Stephi Wild - Apr 29, 2025

Liberation, a new play by poet and playwright Ntombizodwa Nyoni, directed by Monique Touko, will receive its World Premiere as part of Manchester International Festival 2025.

MISS MYRTLE'S GARDEN Cast and Creatives Revealed at the Bush Theatre
by Stephi Wild - Apr 14, 2025

Miss Myrtle's Garden will open at the Bush Theatre, London next month.  This world premiere production, written by Danny James King, is directed by Bush Theatre's Artistic Director, Taio Lawson.

SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN and More Set For Royal Exchange 2025-26 Season
by Stephi Wild - Apr 3, 2025

The Royal Exchange Theatre has announced it's upcoming season including Singin' In the Rain, directed by Raz Shaw. Learn more about the upcoming season here!

Full Cast Set for MARIE AND ROSETTA UK Premiere Starring Beverley Knight
by Chloe Rabinowitz - Mar 20, 2025

The Rose Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre and ETT revealed the full cast and creative team for the UK premiere of George Brant’s Marie and Rosetta. See who is starring and learn how to purchase tickets.

Natalie Dormer, Giles Terera and More Set For Chichester Festival Theatre's 2025 Season
by Stephi Wild - Feb 14, 2025

Chichester Festival Theatre’s Festival 2025 has been announced by Artistic Director, Justin Audibert and Executive Director, Kathy Bourne. Festival 2025 includes five world and two UK premieres, two musicals, and masterpieces from world drama.

Beverley Knight Will Lead UK Premiere of MARIE AND ROSETTA
by Stephi Wild - Jan 14, 2025

Rose Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre and ETT have announced the UK premiere of George Brant’s Marie and Rosetta, the play with music telling the true story of American singer and songwriter Rosetta Tharpe and her protégé Marie Knight.

Review: G, Royal Court Theatre
by Cindy Marcolina - Sep 1, 2024

Magical realism is hard to come by in the theatre. Playwright Tife Kusoro dips into urban legends and creepypasta to deliver a fascinating coming-of-age piece. With stunning direction by Monique Touko, G is a brilliant supernatural cautionary tale - a description that’s, admittedly, not entirely accurate nor comprehensive of everything the play is. Kusoro infuses her work with surrealism and harsh socio-political critique, pure banter and sheer terror. It’s young and fresh and ingenuously subversive. It’s a comic thriller, but also an unsettling allegory and a story about the power of friendship and loyalty. Kusoro is definitely onto something.

Cast and Creatives Set For G at the Royal Court Theatre
by Stephi Wild - Jun 21, 2024

The Royal Court has announced the cast and creative team of G by Tife Kusoro (SW1 Project). The cast are Selorm Adonu (Brother’s Keeper), Kadiesha Belgrave (Grud) and Ebenezer Gyau (Dear England) and the director is Monique Touko (School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play). 

Review: WEDDING BAND, Lyric Hammersmith
by Cindy Marcolina - Jun 7, 2024

Interracial marriage has been legal in the United States for less than six decades. To put it into perspective, sliced bread was first sold forty years earlier. Set in 1918 South Carolina, Wedding Band is a blistering portrayal of unjust laws and discrimination, of conscious and unconscious bias, of finding love inside hopeless prejudice. Alice Childress’ American classic describes a Deep South riddled with hatred and stigma, a picture that’s uncomfortably close to a certain party’s opinions and that, sixty years later, remains unfortunately topical. A white baker and a black seamstress defy public opinion in this sombre drama.

Photos: Go Inside Rehearsal for WEDDING BAND: A LOVE/HATE STORY IN BLACK AND WHITE
by A.A. Cristi - May 10, 2024

See photos from inside the rehearsal room for Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White, written by award-winning American playwright Alice Childress.

Cast Set For WEDDING BAND at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre
by Stephi Wild - Apr 16, 2024

Lyric Hammersmith Theatre has announced the full cast and creative team for the UK premiere of Alice Childress’ Wedding Band:  A Love/Hate Story in Black and White, directed by Stage Debut Award winner Monique Touko, who returns to the Lyric after the smash-hit production of School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play. 

Review: THE BOY AT THE BACK OF THE CLASS, Rose Theatre
by Niamh Jones - Feb 9, 2024

Onjali Q. Raúf’s The Boy at the Back of the Class has become a widely read novel since its publication in 2018. The book, and recently adapted play, tells the story of refugee boy Ahmet arriving at a London primary school and having to integrate into the Year Five class. Adapted by Nick Ahad, the play is told from the perspective of a fellow classmate of Ahmet’s, Alexa, as she and her friends learn about refugees and the trails that they face.

Photos: Inside Rehearsal For THE BOY AT THE BACK OF THE CLASS at the Rose Theatre
by Stephi Wild - Jan 19, 2024

Rose Theatre and Children’s Theatre Partnership present the world premiere stage adaptation of the multi award-winning and best-selling children’s book The Boy at the Back of the Class, based on the novel by Onjali Q. Raúf, adapted by Nick Ahad and directed by Monique Touko. Check out all new rehearsal photos here!

Cast and Creatives Set for THE BOY AT THE BACK OF THE CLASS
by Aliya Al-Hassan - Jan 9, 2024

Rose Theatre and Children’s Theatre Partnership have revealed full casting and further creative team for the world premiere stage adaptation of the multi award-winning and best-selling children’s book The Boy at the Back of the Class, based on the novel by Onjali Q. Raúf, adapted by Nick Ahad and directed by Monique Touko.