Talawa, Britain’s leading Black theatre company, is rolling out a black carpet at Hackney Empire on Tuesday 13 October for one night marking four decades, with excerpts from the productions that built it and £20 tickets for under-25s and local residents.
Talawa was founded in 1986 by four people who had run out of patience: director Yvonne Brewster, actors Mona Hammond and Carmen Munroe, and producer Inigo Espejel. Black actors were being kept off Britain’s major stages, so they built a company that would put them on one. The name comes from the Jamaican saying mi likkle but mi talawa: small but strong.
Four decades on, Talawa is an Olivier nominee and a finalist for The Stage’s Producer of the Year 2026. Talawa Iconic is the centrepiece of TALAWA 86:26, the company’s anniversary programme, and it is a single evening rather than a run.
What’s on the night
Two and a half hours with an interval at Hackney Empire, built from live music, performance, dance, poetry and reflection, with special guests still to be announced.
The spine of it is excerpts from the back catalogue: The Importance of Being Earnest (1989), King Lear (2015), Run It Back (2019) and Play On! (2025), plus the debut that started everything, The Black Jacobins in 1986. That production, staged at Riverside Studios with Norman Beaton as Toussaint L’Ouverture, was the first major British staging of the play with an entirely Black cast in fifty years. It made enough money to keep the company going, which is why there is a fortieth anniversary at all.
The date is not an accident. Yvonne Brewster died on 12 October 2025, which puts the showcase one year and one day after she went. She directed The Black Jacobins herself and ran Talawa until 2003.
For me, and Talawa, this is more than an anniversary, it’s history in the making; one extraordinary night of theatre, culture and celebration, and we are inviting all to share this moment with us.
Michael Buffong, artistic director, Talawa
There’s a neat symmetry in the venue too: Hackney Empire has been going since 1901 and hits its own 125th anniversary in December, so the two anniversaries are sharing a stage.
The bit to act on: cheap tickets
Tickets run £20 to £40, plus £1.50 per ticket if you book online or by phone. The part that is easy to miss is that £20 tickets are available for under-25s and for Croydon and Hackney locals, which brings a seat in a Grade II* listed theatre down to less than a West End restaurant starter. Hospitality packages start at £4,000, which is a different conversation entirely.
The London x London Take: anniversary galas are usually for the people already in the room, and you can feel it from the stalls. This one has a reason to exist beyond the round number, which is that a lot of the work being excerpted has never been filmed and exists now only in the memory of the people who saw it. The Black Jacobins in particular is spoken about far more than it is seen. Go for that excerpt, stay for the rest, and book the under-25s or local price if either applies to you, because nobody advertises those loudly enough.
Need to know
- Where: Hackney Empire, 291 Mare Street, London E8 1EJ
- When: Tuesday 13 October 2026, 7pm
- Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes including interval
- Price: £20 to £40, plus £1.50 booking fee. £20 tickets for under-25s and Croydon and Hackney residents
- Booking: hackneyempire.co.uk or talawa.com
- Nearest stations: Hackney Central and Hackney Downs
More of the season? Our roundup of the best exhibitions in London covers what else is worth booking this autumn.
