About the Play:

BLKS has become a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues and Female/Female Scenes.

BLKS is a full-length drama by Aziza Barnes. When stuff goes down, your girls show up. As sharply funny as it is poignant, BLKS introduces us to Octavia, Imani, and June – three 20-something black friends trying to find intimacy and purpose in a city that just doesn't seem to care about them or their feelings.

BLKS explores the joy and anguish of growing up and out. The story begins when, in the wake of a serious personal health scare, Octavia recruits her besties June and Imani to join her for one last epic night on the town. Octavia is a budding screenwriter who is having relationship issues with her Latina filmmaker girlfriend Ry; Imani, one of the roomies, is an aspiring comedian who has based her routine on Eddie Murphy's Raw, for deeply personal reasons; and June is an accountant who cannot free herself from a perpetually cheating boyfriend. They drink a lot. They smoke pot a lot. They try to have sex. A lot. But as the evening unfolds, a series of increasingly wild adventures tests their relationship. This 24-hour blitz explores everything from queer love to the pressures of adulting and how we survive and save ourselves from ourselves.

BLKS premiered in 2017 at Steppenwolf Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, and 2019 at MCC Theater and a New York Times Critics' pick for one of 2019's best plays. The play was nominated for the 2020 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play and won the inaugural Antonyo Award for Best Play, which is presented by Broadway Black. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and has been performed in regional and college theatre productions.

Cast: 5 female, 1 male

What people say:

"Aiming to be a raucous comedy of misbehavior and a quiet tragedy of mistreatment, [BLKS] amazingly succeeds at both…For quite a stretch of the breakneck 90-minute production, you feel the pure joy of seeing the best of people at their worst…the uncomfortable proximity of terror and pleasure, the mark of mortality in the midst of intimacy, percolates beneath the surface at all times, so that even at its most extreme and obscene – BLKS is not for prudish ears or eyes—it is serious and sad and profoundly human." — New York Times

"Unvarnished and totally uninhibited, [BLKS] is hilarious in the most uncomfortable ways. It's the kind of comedy you watch with one hand covering your eyes, and the other suspending your dropped jaw…Barnes's lack of fear as a writer is what makes BLKS a particularly joyous experience…Each of Barnes's characters is a mess in his or her own special way, and it is in their flaws that we are best able to see reflections of ourselves – and laugh-cringe at the mirror's harsh truth." — TheaterMania.com

"…[a] disarming, vivacious comedy…Barnes's irreverent and exuberant play, saturated in race and sexuality, is part romantic sitcom, part existential reflection…Before you know it, a deep, soulful riff is unwinding…It's a persistent, perceptive entertainer. The zest of these women is off the charts." — Washington Post

About the Playwright:

Aziza Barnes is an African-American poet and performer who was born in Los Angeles. They earned a BFA from New York University and an MFA from the University of Mississippi. Barnes's first play, BLKS, debuted at Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago.