Queen’s Theatre has announced its production Princess Essex will go on tour

Princess Essex has been written by Anne Odeke (Pic-Queen’s Theatre)

Queen’s Theatre have announced that its play Princess Essex will be touring around Essex for free. 

The play, which is based on a true story, is a retelling of the first black woman to ever enter a beauty pageant un the UK. 

Princess Essex is written and performed by the talented Anne Odeke, as a writer she has been commissioned to write an adaptation of Little Women and as a performer has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company.   

You will be able to watch the play in Grays, Aveley, Basildon, Pitsea and in West Tilbury, free of charge. 

It follows the story of a black Essex girl, Joanna, who in 1908 decides that she wants to enter herself into one of the country’s biggest beauty pageants, disguised as a Senegalese Princess. 

The team behind the project include; Director – Robin Belfield (RSC), Assistant Director – Michelle Payne (Squad Goals), Designer – Gemma Compton (All my Sons), Lighting Designer – Ben Garcia (Museum of the Homeless), Sound Designer – Hattie North (Shuga Fixx vs the Illuminati) and Technical Stage Manager – Jade Ayres (Peter Pan).

The play has been created with public funding from Arts Council England and is also in partnership with Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, The Mercury Theatre Colchester and the South Essex African Caribbean Association (SEACA).

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport funds the Cultural Development Fund which is administered by Arts Council England.

Princess Essex will first open at The Mercury Theatre Colchester before it then tours South Essex from 26 February to 11 March.

The venues and locations have been chosen as places where local people rarely, if ever, have the opportunity to see live theatre performed.

Princess Essex will play at the Queen’s Theatre, Billet Lane, Hornchurch on 27 February.

Tickets for the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch event will cost £10* and the March events will be FREE (ticket still required). To book, call the Box Office on 01708 443333 or book online at www.queens-theatre.co.uk

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