Zadie Smith's first play to reimagine Chaucer in borough of Brent
Zadie Smith is to reimagine Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Tale for a new production billed as a gift to her home borough of Brent.
Smith’s first play, titled The Wife of Willesden, was announced on Tuesday as a highlight of the programme next year when Brent in north-west London becomes the capital’s second borough of culture.
Lois Stonock, the artistic director of Brent 2020, said they had contacted Smith in New York at an early stage in the planning. “She got back straight away and said, ‘I really love my borough, it is really important to me’ and she said yes, she would get involved.”
She said the piece would raise questions about the place of women in society and aim to capture the voice of Brent.
“Zadie talks about the Brent accent. She reckons she can identify it anywhere in the world and I think she might be on to something. There is a way of talking that is very Brent.”
The piece, a monologue, will be staged at the Kiln Theatre, which staged an adaptation of Smith’s novel White Teeth as part of its opening season after its refurbishment and transformation from Tricycle.
Brent is following Waltham Forest as a London borough of culture, a scheme initiated by Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, and based on the success of the first of the UK’s European capitals of culture – Glasgow and Liverpool – and the UK cities of culture – Derry, Hull and, in 2021, Coventry.
Other highlights of the year will include a mile-long summer street party on London’s oldest and longest road, Kilburn High Road; a weekend-long reggae takeover of Harlesden’s high street; and the return of the Mobo awards to Brent, 25 years after they were dreamed up by Kanya King in the bedroom of her Kilburn home.
In July, a new anthem for London will be performed at Wembley Arena, created by the singer-songwriter Rahel Debebe-Dessalegne and the poet Momtaza Mehri.
The year will kick off on 18 January with an opening celebration spanning the length of Olympic Way to Wembley Park. It will, said Stonock, be Brent’s version of the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony.
Carolyn Downs, the council’s chief executive, said Brent was the most diverse borough in London and that would be reflected in the programme.
“Diversity is our strength and our greatest asset,” she said. “We will celebrate migration, which has formed the bedrock of our communities and this borough for generations, at a time of great uncertainty and hostility to people who come to this country. We cannot allow that in our borough.”
