A Tribute To The One & Only Nina Simone

Fringe First Award-winning playwright and performer Apphia Campbell brings her tour de force one-woman show about the life of venerated jazz singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone to London's Trafalgar Square Studios for a strictly limited four week run in early 2019. What began as a stripped back show in 2013 has since grown to include critically acclaimed runs in Shanghai, Brighton, New York and a 2017 stint at the Brasserie Zedel, marking its return to the capital city with a fully realised production that fuses the whirlwind of Simone's incredible story with the passion of her music.  

A charismatic performer with the same sense of magnetism as the show's subject, Campbell invites the audience into the intimate climes of a hotel room where Simone has shut herself away to commune with her dead father, whilst attempting to kick alcohol and tobacco. Her vivid recollections of her time as a child prodigy from a strict, religious family, and her rejection from classical music college due to the color of her skin bubble to the surface, whilst memories of early successes as a jazz pianist pioneer and flash points of her activism seamlessly interweave with breathtaking performances of iconic Simone songs like 'I Loves You, Porgy', 'I Put A Spell On You' and 'Feeling Good'. 

On weekend evenings of the Trafalgar Square Studios run, Campbell will also perform Soul Sessions, a 50 minute cabaret set inspired by Simone's music which is set to run after the main show.