Hear the heartbeat of history.
Love stories can happen anywhere. In the present or the past, in the head or the heart. But when Him and Her meet by chance at the Liverpool docks and unearth the hidden history of the Southern Syncopated Orchestra – the original jazz pioneers – could this be the start of something new, or are they stuck repeating another love story from a hundred years earlier?
Syncopated is an intoxicating new play set to music by Varaidzo about a music student from London and a young Liverpudlian discovering each other in the shadow of the city. As they connect, they begin to sense history’s echoes when two figures from the past lead them on a journey of personal discovery – a trip into the revolutionary Black sound that took the world, and their own lives, by storm.
Co-produced by Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse and Talawa Theatre Company as part of Talawa’s Black Joy season, Syncopated hums with live music and romantic energy.
You won’t want to miss a beat.
Oct 2025
Creative Team
Writer: Varaidzo
Director: Tian Glasgow
Set and Costume Designer: Keshi Raghu
Sound Designer: Danni Skerritt
Lighting Designer: Stella Okafor-Ross
Movement Director: Yandass
Production Team
For Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse
Producer: Zoe Walker
Production Manager: Diego Gutiérrez Córdoba
Company Manager: Sarah Lewis
Technical Stage Manager, LX and Sound Operator: Thomas Maries
Assistant Stage Manager: Alice Winter
LX Programmer: Jack Wood
Stage Fit-Up Crew: Paul McDonough, Emmy Sayer, Jack Wood
Costume Supervisor: Anna Souter
Costume Maker: Laura Smith
Set Construction: Phil Clack, Elle Lee, Keith Holt, Paul McDonough
Enhance Performance Facilitator: Michelle Felix
For Talawa
Producer: Samantha Nurse
Assistant Producer: Regina Agard-Brathwaite
Technical Manager: Cameron Day
Cast
Him/Frank: Joseph Munroe-Robinson
Her/Penny: Teddy Oyediran
