Brixton Stories and Happy Birthday, Mister Deka D: The Short and Happy Life of Ossic Jones

Two plays by one of Britain’s most prolific young black authors “Brixton Stories” Ossie Jones is an immigration lawyer in Brixton, London, a place full of wordmongers, preachers and prophets. One day he falls into a coma, is arrested for a crime he has not committed and is locked up in prison with a triple-lifer. Biyi Bandele’s witty and engaging play is in a world in which fantasy may, troublingly, be more real than reality. Brixton Stories premiered at The Tricycle Theatre, London, 2001. “Happy Birthday, Mister Deka D” I went for a walk. I fought in a war. I took long rides on the tube. I met someone new. We had a child. She met someone new. The seasons changed. I changed with the seasons… That’s why I’m here.’ Relationships are as elusive as memory iself in this poetic and lyrical play. Happy Birthday Mister Deka D premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in August 1999 and transferred to the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. Praise for Happy Birthday, Mister Deka D: A little miracle of stillness Independent. A perky, quirky look at love, laughter and forgetting, Mister Deka D suggests that only when you stop avoiding the issue are you able to move on The Times