Why Munya Chawawa is 'jumping ship' from socials to Shakespeare

ByIan Youngs

Culture reporter

Comedian, contented creator and documentary shaper Munya Chawawa became a prima successful the "golden era" of online video, but says his signifier acting debut successful Shakespeare is portion of a determination to "jump ship" from societal media.

Recently, helium has been immersing himself successful footage of the UK's 1990s amerciable rave scene.

It was a clip of hedonism and state surrounded by governmental and media panic - and is the mounting for a modern instrumentality connected Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, successful which Chawawa volition appear.

"I've evidently done a super-deep dive into rave civilization and watched loads of rave footage from each these small escaped parties wherever they would find an bare field," helium says.

While immoderate footage exists of those illicit outdoor parties, they came earlier everyone had phones and cameras - and Chawawa, 33, feels a pang of nostalgia for that property of analogue abandon.

"I perfectly miss an epoch wherever we were dancing for ourselves and not for a integer satellite somewhere," helium says.

"We're each telephone addicts," Chawawa continues. "The mean person's picking up their telephone 200 times a day. I'm connected a spot of a conscious ngo astatine the infinitesimal to trim that.

"And interestingly, the apical comments nether each the videos I've been watching are radical who were astatine those raves saying, 'I loved being capable to dance, possibly get a small high, possibly get excessively sweaty for excessively long, and cognize determination was nary grounds of that.'"

Chawawa was successful his teens erstwhile societal media and smartphones took off, and says helium "took for granted" the little clip earlier immoderate and each amusive juncture was recorded and posted for posterity.

If helium ventures onto a creation level now, helium admits "my two-step has go a batch stiffer" retired of anxiousness that a incorrect determination could beryllium filmed and nonstop him viral.

"So yeah, I bash decidedly conifer for those non-digital, in-person experiences, and I envy my parents for having them."

This is coming from idiosyncratic who owes his fame to the integer age, aft making his sanction with comic videos arsenic characters similar upper-class drill rapper Unknown P and cook Jonny Oliver.

But Chawawa has since branched retired from societal media - making 2 Bafta-nominated TV documentaries, starring connected Taskmaster and doing stand-up comedy.

"I've been making my short-form satirical videos for astir 8 years now, creeping up to a decade," helium says. "I person a definite accomplishment acceptable that I've acquired there. It's skyrocketed maine to each the places I wanted to go.

"But I accidental the question astatine the opening was ever - if these sketches bash enactment and they bash catapult maine into this caller stratosphere of entertainment, wherever americium I trying to land?"

The aim, helium says, was to onshore connected "something bigger and onto a caller challenge" - specified arsenic theatre acting.

He's starting by playing Bottom successful Shakespeare's romanticist caper A Midsummer Night's Dream astatine Chichester Festival Theatre successful West Sussex.

In this 90s version, his quality is simply a subordinate of the Young Conservatives and is "a precise governmental Bottom", helium says, portion Theseus is simply a Tory MP who has unopen down escaped raves successful the county.

"I instrumentality it ace earnestly and I'm precise studious erstwhile we're successful the room," Chawawa explains of his preparations. "I'm taking notes. I'm learning each of these huffy Shakespeare presumption similar couplets and quatrains and anacreontics and worldly that decidedly sounds made up but isn't.

"And I deliberation besides it's the cleanable clip to maybe... leap ship, I deliberation is the close word.

"Social media platforms and their algorithms person precise overmuch angled themselves against the creatives astatine the moment, I think."

He's not jumping vessel from societal media completely, but says the online conflict for eyeballs has "turned into a small spot of a dogfight, wherever adjacent bully stuff, adjacent truly consciously thought-out material, is conscionable instantly swiped to the bottommost of people's pages".

Chawawa thinks helium was fortunate to "enjoy the aureate epoch of societal media" earlier it became harder to chopped done the noise.

"To beryllium capable to experiment, to beryllium capable to proceedings these characters and rotation the dice connected large ideas was fantastic due to the fact that you were ne'er getting mislaid successful a oversea of content.

"There's immoderate huffy statistic astir determination being tens of millions of videos uploaded a time present - but astatine the clip it was like, 'I'm going to effort this Jamie Oliver spoof oregon a Nigella [Lawson] quality oregon the UK's archetypal posh drill rapper, what bash you think?' And it felt similar the full net would springiness you feedback connected that originative product."

He adds: "I emotion the information that societal media has allowed maine to person a vocation successful stand-up, arsenic a documentarian and present arsenic an actor, truthful I don't person immoderate benignant of resentment to it and however it's changed.

"But what I volition accidental is I was determination arsenic the prima was coming up connected societal media, and it was precise fun."

Chawawa fell successful emotion with the theatre erstwhile helium went to spot The Lion King erstwhile helium was 16 and realised it was similar "the champion movie you've ever seen, but successful existent life".

However, returning arsenic an adult, helium felt retired of spot arsenic a achromatic man. "In the shows I was going to, it didn't consciousness arsenic though they were excessively welcoming to maine being there, conscionable done the tiny societal cues."

He had a lightbulb infinitesimal aft watching For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy by Ryan Calais Cameron, which "I inactive deliberation is the champion play I've ever seen". Chawawa recovered himself thinking, "I privation each achromatic lad successful the satellite could ticker this play."

So helium took a radical of teenagers to ticker it, which helium describes arsenic "the astir fulfilling and magical and profoundly moving experience".

Inspired by their reactions, Chawawa acceptable up the Black Boys Theatre Club to instrumentality groups each period to plays ranging from Dracula to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - followed by a post-show treatment successful Nando's.

"Every clip we spell and spot a play, it's not astir the boys skipping retired of it going, 'I privation to beryllium the adjacent Billy Elliot'," helium says. "It's much conscionable them realising it's a harmless abstraction for you. It tin beryllium your location if you privation it to be. You volition thrive connected signifier oregon arsenic an assemblage member, but conscionable cognize that theatre is simply a portion of your multiverse."

In 2023, 10% of theatre audiences were from black, Asian oregon ethnically divers backgrounds, according to Arts Council England data.

Chawawa praises theatres for opening their doors to the Black Boys Theatre Club and different efforts to pull much divers audiences, but says little summons prices and "a societal shift" volition marque a bigger difference.

Next month, his nine volition question to spot him successful A Midsummer Night's Dream - and helium hopes much young minds volition beryllium captivated by the "snow globe of quality emotion" that is unrecorded theatre.

"Really, truly, wherever other tin I spell successful existent beingness and ticker idiosyncratic explicit each emotions without restraint? Sadness, anger, joy, envy. And I tin beryllium metres away, sometimes centimetres distant from seeing existent quality emotion - not done a surface of immoderate size, but successful the room," helium says.

"I judge that arsenic much radical bash effort and backmost disconnected distant from screens and integer experiences, theatre volition acquisition a boom."

A Midsummer Night's Dream is astatine at Chichester Festival Theatre from 18 September to 17 October.