HAIRCUTS drive the drama in the first co-production between West Yorkshire Playhouse and the National Theatre.

Barber Shop Chronicles is a dynamic new play inspired by a Chapeltown barber, written by rising literary star Inua Ellams who wrote Black T-Shirt Collection and The 14th Tale.

Described as vibrant and joyous, Barber Shop Chronicles spans continents following African men from London to Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Lagos and Accra, contemplating the role the barber shop plays in their lives.

The play is directed by Bijan Sheibani, who helmed A Taste of Honey for the National Theatre and War Horse for its US tour.

Ellams wrote the play after a friend told him about a charity wanting to pioneer a programme training barbers in the basics of counselling.

Ellams said: “I was startled that conversations in barber shops were so intimate that they’d seen a need for counsellors.

“Initially I wanted to be a poet attached to that project, writing poems and creating graphic art to be installed in barber shops based on the barbers I met and the conversations that I overheard.

“This idea stayed with me, and the more time I spent in the barber shops listening to intimate conversations, the more the voices grew louder, haunting me until they became freestyling characters conversing in my head.

“I wanted to pin them down and spend more time discovering them.”

The play is set across multiple countries and continents exploring the role of the barber shop, with a plethora of characters showing the nuances of African masculinity.

Ellams said: “I travelled to Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda and Ghana, and spent time in barber shops in Leeds and London, with the stories and the characters in the play coming from the conversations I had with men I met.

“These men allowed me to transcribe our conversations, which gave me an opportunity to invent and merge characters. It means the play as a whole feels to me much more like a collaborative project.”

Visit wyp.org.uk or call 0113 2137700 to book tickets. Barber Shop Chronicles runs until July 29.