Sophia Leonie is a London-born author and performer whose work spans screenwriting, journalism and now theatre.
Her debut play Millennium Ladies, at the moment working at Brixton Home, is a daring and tender exploration of girlhood, identification and consent, set in opposition to the colourful backdrop of 90s London.
With humour, coronary heart and sharp cultural perception, Leonie brings the tales of a technology of younger girls to the stage tales hardly ever informed, however deeply acquainted. Right here, she shares what impressed the play and the way it feels to lastly carry it to life.
Please introduce your self
I’m Sophia Leonie, a author and performer from London. I’m of combined heritage -Zimbabwean and English, and my star signal is Libra.
Describe your life at the moment, in a single phrase or a sentence.
A juggle.
Why are we right here?
My debut play, Millennium Ladies, which I’ve written and starring in, is at the moment on at Brixton Home theatre. Millennium Ladies is a play about girlhood; rising up within the 90s, understanding who you might be – and developing your identification while being within the goldfish bowl of the male gaze. It’s about how issues have modified for ladies rising up at present – and crucially, how a lot issues haven’t.
How lengthy has this story been in you? And what pushed you to carry it to life now?
I wrote this play again in 2020 throughout lockdown. It was actually cathartic and poured out of me. Over time that adopted, I did two rounds of R&D and labored with some wonderful creatives and dramaturgs to refine it – together with my producer Zoe Gibbons, who was with me from the beginning and who labored extraordinarily arduous fundraising the cash and dealing with Brixton Home to place it on. It might have taken a while to get to the place we’re, however this actually is the right time for me in my life to do that. I consider all the things occurs for a cause.
With a background in instructing and journalism, and having beforehand written for display screen was penning this a breeze?
Not a breeze. However it was loosely based mostly on experiences that me and associates of mine went by rising up within the 90s so in that sense it was straightforward to jot down and the primary draft was written fairly shortly. After I first wrote it I wasn’t a mom, so I talked to girls who had been, and who had teenage kids about how they’d deal with troublesome subjects.
If you had been writing Millennium Ladies did you all the time see your self as Jessica, or had been there moments whenever you thought-about enjoying Chanel, or not being in it in any respect?
I all the time knew that I’d play Jessica. There have been instances over the past couple of years, when I’ve been away from appearing, on maternity go away, immersed in motherhood the place I puzzled if I may ever do something I used to do once more. However I knew that if there was something I used to be going to behave in once more, it will be this.
Alongside enjoying Jessica, you tackle a couple of different characters. What had been your anchors for distinguishing them??
We labored with an unimaginable motion director Gaby Nimo, who helped us refine the distinct physique language and motion high quality of the opposite characters. It was essential for me that it was ladies on stage enjoying all components. That they embodied the males of their lives; that is how they see them, and the way they affect their life from the feminine perspective.
Your forged is so sturdy and work collectively fantastically. How did you go about discovering Distinctive Spencer, Nkhanise Phiri and Tamara Camacho, and what made every of them really feel so proper for the roles?
I held auditions. Distinctive was with us from the R&D in 2022. As quickly as I noticed her, I simply knew she was wonderful – she brings such comedy and fact, and actually lights up the stage. Nkhanise gave us a stunning, youthful nuanced Jasmine that actually brings the half alive, and after I met Tamara and she or he began her audition I simply noticed ‘Chanel’ immediately – she is ideal for the position and once more such a truthful, nuanced, but very comedic actor.
The angle of the combined race expertise added a hardly ever explored dynamic, despite the fact that the eventualities felt so acquainted. Why was it essential so that you can carry this to mild, and the way intently does it mirror your individual experiences?
I hardly ever noticed mixed-race folks like myself represented on stage or on display screen rising up and after they had been, they had been both stereotypes or tropes like one dimensional ‘girlfriends’, or within the uncommon case the narrative was centered on their expertise, the attitude was about eager to be white. I couldn’t establish with that and needed to
present one other model of us. So that is about rising up mixed-race in London, at a really particular time, and hopefully, that speaks to a bunch of people that have by no means seen themselves represented. I do know everybody received’t establish or relate, and that’s okay. However for people who do, I needed to do that for us.
You additionally discover consent in a really sensitively dealt with manner, displaying how conditions that appear enjoyable or harmless can shift fairly shortly. How did you’re employed with director Jade Lewis and Manufacturing Drama Therapist Wabriya King to form these scenes and guarantee they had been each truthful and secure to carry out?
Consent wasn’t one thing that was ever talked about rising up, not in the best way it’s now. I needed to indicate how that impacted ladies of that technology. It was a definite selection to make use of humour, bluntness and refined gestures to indicate the horrors of what really went on, as a result of for these girls it was sadly simply a part of rising up and life went on. That’s the terrible factor I’m making an attempt to indicate. Each Wabriya and Jade made certain that it was all dealt with sensitively, and all of us had entry to drama remedy throughout the rehearsals and run.
Is there a scene or part that finest captures what the mission meant to you?
The ultimate scene and the ultimate line. I get choked up each night time earlier than I say it. It’s the cause I wrote the play.
GETTING TO KNOW YOU …
If not this, then what? I’d be again instructing. I’m enthusiastic about training and train media GCSE and English.
What’s made you unhappy, mad, and glad this week? Unhappy, what’s occurring in Gaza. Mad, I’ve been following the Diddy trial and a number of the misogynist responses I come throughout on-line are stunning. Glad, my son actually makes me smile every single day.
What are you watching? I’ve simply began The Final of Us, season 2.
What are you studying? My subsequent e book for my e book group is The Nursery by Szilvia Molner, it’s in regards to the realities of early motherhood.
The final movie you watched? The Substance. I hate horrors however this was so good.
The final play you noticed? I haven’t seen something for some time. I feel it was Shifters.
The final reside music occasion you attended? Usher on the O2.
What’s at the moment in your music playlist? Old skool. I hearken to storage each morning to get within the headspace for the play.
The place’s your completely satisfied place? House with my accomplice and my toddler.
Have a good time somebody? Nadine Mills completely killed it in Supacell and I’m so pleased with her and excited for season 2.
Have a good time your self? Creating work for ladies of my technology, representing a bunch of people who find themselves hardly ever represented.
What’s subsequent? Relaxation.
The place can we discover you? (Social handles) Insta: @mssophialeonie I don’t actually use some other social media anymore.
The place can we see or hear your work? Millennium Ladies at Brixton Home till thirty first Might