Josephine returns to Bath’s Egg Theatre, co-producers of the UK tour

Josephine, a new play about the iconic entertainer and civil rights activist Josephine Baker, makes a welcome return to The Egg at the Theatre Royal Bath on its first UK tour on Saturday 26^th March.

Image: Josephine, credit Paul Blakemore

With a sultry Harlem Renaissance-inspired score, Charleston dancing and a hatful of historical figures, Josephine blurs the real with the imagined as it follows one woman’s incredible journey from the slums of St Louis via the bright lights of Paris and into the hearts of the world.

Josephine Baker, the little girl from Missouri who became an original 20^th Century icon - dancer, actor, activist, campaigner, spy and mother to the multicultural Rainbow Tribe. Josephine broke the mould and high-kicked the pieces to the kerb.

But, almost 50 years after her death, Café Josephine, a down-at-heel New York diner dedicated to her memory, faces closure. Nobody remembers Josephine, who she was, what she did, what she stood for. And she just can’t allow that.

Written by Leona Allen and Jesse Briton, Josephine stars Chippo Kureya as Josephine, Sadi Masego as Marie and Jack Benjamin as Jack, directed by Holm Theatre’s Jesse Briton.

Last autumn Bath’s Egg Theatre teamed up with Holm Theatre (Wales and South West) to commission and tour Josephine to more than 25 venues across England and Wales by April 2022. Playwrights Leona Allen and Jesse Briton said: “When we stumbled across the story of Josephine Baker, we were amazed by two things: how could she have done so much and how could we not have heard of her? We wrote Josephine to answer those questions and inspire a whole new generation to reimagine their relationship with the past.”

In November 2021, Josephine Baker became the first Black woman to be entered into France’s hallowed Panthéon mausoleum, a memorial in Paris for great national figures in French history from the world of politics, culture and science.

Born in St Louis, Missouri in 1906, Josephine Baker performed in the chorus line in New York before sailing to Paris in 1925 where she found fame and won legions of admirers, including Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso. In 1927 Baker was the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture. In 1937 she became a French national, raising her 12 internationally adopted children dubbed the “Rainbow Tribe” in France. She aided the French Resistance during WWII for which she was awarded the Croix de Guerre, the Rosette de la Résistance and the highest French order of merit, the Chevailer of the Légion d’Honneur by General Charles de Gaulle. In 1963 she spoke at the historic March on Washington alongside Martin Luther King.

Josephine appears at The Egg at the Theatre Royal Bath on Saturday 26^th March.

Tickets are on sale at The Egg on 01225 823 409, the Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on 01225 448844 and online at www.theatreroyal.org.uk