Mya Onwugbonu And Jerome Scott - Do You Want Something To Cry For

From Rehearsal to the Stage: A BTS Glimpse of Do You Want Something To Cry For (Theatre Peckham, May 20–21). 

A play by Mya Onwugbonu and Jerome Scott.

In every rehearsal room - with every project - I want to find community in creativity. Working with Jerome Scott, and our wonderful team of creatives, we have a connection that directly translates into the work.

Do You Want Something To Cry For was born from the friction between that lived reality and the world we wish they could inhabit. As an audience member from our Omnibus Engine Room showing said, this is “a story of liberation on two fronts: a) this is what our world is like, and b) this is what it could be. Very Tupac” Through sound, poetry, and movement, we are not just telling a story - we are offering a provocation. What happens when black boys are seen, really seen? What if they are allowed to hold each other? For however long they wish to be held?

The casting of Abimbola Ikengboju brought that question to life in ways we couldn’t have scripted. His onstage chemistry with Jerome Scott is beautiful to see. From the very first rehearsal, his understanding of the world of the play allowed us to play. It’s a pairing that clicked early and has only deepened.

Jerome Scott, our writer, performer, and movement director, reflects on the work’s deeper ambition:

“It feels daunting to say how the play will ‘push the culture forward’ but I know what I hope it does: I want it to make people reflect on how they perceive intimacy
between black male bodies, and what their personal threshold of ‘too much’ is. I want the work to encourage love, and the capacity for more of it. And through
exploring it in the room, the words are becoming - and meaning - more than I could have imagined”

Jerome often references the work of Niobe Way, who writes on how expressions of love-phrases like ‘I love you’ or ‘I don’t care’ - bleed in and out of boys’ vocabularies as they move from early to late adolescence. The play doesn’t try to answer why this change happens, but it questions it. It lingers in that space. It gives room for the performance of masculinity to be gently taken off, even for just a moment.

The process of creating this piece has been just as layered as the themes we explore. Movement was a foundational tool from the very beginning. When Mateus Daniel (a Movement Director, Dancer and Actor) came into our rehearsals, everything shifted.

“Mateus came into the room and completely changed the world our movement sat in,” I said. “That outsider perspective allowed us to stretch something we didn’t
even know needed stretching.”

Jerome adds:
“It being my first thing showcased on a platform, and having the worry of it not landing, and then having someone established come in and say ‘you have a solid
piece of work here, that is fun’ it changed so much for me. I feel more ready, more confident in what I’m showing”

Mateus challenged us to think bigger, to amplify space as though it were made for a larger stage than the one we were in. And that invitation - to think and move expansively - allowed us to be bold and confident in the piece of theatre we are creating. It is made for a larger stage - Theatre Peckham is just the beginning of that journey.

We began rehearsals working with an earlier version of the soundscape. That limitation forced us to lean into the unfinished, to build blocking and movement from instincts, emotional cues, and internal rhythm. That process - organic and slightly chaotic - was made stronger with the pool of creatives that came to our open rehearsals, and the team at Talawa Theatre Company (David Gilbert and A’Ishah Waheed).

At the heart of it, this story is deeply personal to us all. I’m lucky enough to have two positive black male figures in my life - my father and my older brother. Without them, I wouldn’t walk through the world with the same grace or humility. My mum taught me strength, warmth, but they taught me vulnerability. This story is for them. For the unspoken softness between black men in the company of each other - versus the hardness expected of them by the world.

As we invite audiences into this world, our only hope is that they leave asking questions. Not just about the characters, but about themselves. About who they’ve held back from loving loudly.

About how they show up - and how they might show up softer.
“For there to be someone in the audience who thinks, ‘I need to check in with my person, my friend, my brother,’ and hold them for just a little longer… that’s enough,” Jerome said.

Do You Want Something To Cry For plays at Theatre Peckham on Tuesday 20th and Wednesday 21st May 2025. Tickets are available from https://www.theatrepeckham.co.uk/show/do-you-want-something-to-cry-for/