Review: When The Blackbird Sings (The Schwarzman Centre)

Review by Justin Lowe

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Oxford is a city of stories. Some are told every day, some kept, preserved and hidden behind the walls of its colleges, and others placed in the background as the city has grown and changed. When the Blackbird Sings takes these stories and mixes them all into one very unusual, but special time-bending bus journey. So the question I have is, when this blackbird sings, is it with all of Oxford’s voices?

My evening began at the Blackbird Pub in Blackbird Leys, where we were given a headset and audio receiver before heading outside for a short safety briefing and walk to our introduction to the first character we will meet on our journey. We arrive at a field where a woman dressed in full 1960s mod fashion, beehive hair and all, is standing in a field with her back to us and her arms outstretched. A voice, presumably of the god, Yemoja welcomes us to the journey through our headsets before Paulette turns to introduce herself. Charlyne Francis brings a real warmth and energy to Paulette, she draws us into her world as she tells us about growing up Black in Blackbird Leys and the community around her. Inspired by the real-life Paulette Nardal, a pioneering Martinican writer, journalist and intellectual, this production uses her as the time traveller and perspective through which we explore the themes of identity, community and who gets to have their story remembered.

And then we board the bus! The bus itself is a great piece of production design. While still appearing inconspicuous to the rest of Oxford’s public transport, this open top bus has been altered with retro cushioning on the seats, vintage hanging lights, stop indicators and other details give it the feel of a 1960s vehicle, while an LED screen tells us which point in history we have arrived at. From the 1960s we jump backwards and forwards through Oxford’s history, meeting a whole host of characters along the way. We first meet our other lead protagonist, Huda, a young woman from Blackbird Leys who has made it to Oxford University but finds herself questioning whether she belongs there. The bus stops at various time periods where we meet various historical figures including: suffragettes, Alain LeRoy Locke, Catherine Singh, Dudley Thompson and many more. It is an exciting and ambitious collection of stories, and the production makes clever use of its time-travelling structure to show that although the circumstances change, many of the same questions keep coming back.

The history of Oxford becomes particularly fascinating as the bus moves towards the city centre. One of my favourite sections came when we reached the University Church of St Mary the Virgin and discovered the origins of a now well-known charity and the beginnings of its committee. I won’t spoil that revelation for you; however, the immersive elements work brilliantly here, with audience members invited to sit around the meeting table, drinking tea and eating biscuits as part of the committee. It is exactly the sort of moment where you stop feeling like an audience member and start feeling like you have somehow wandered into the history yourself.

Another highlight for me was when the production explores the long-running tension between “town and gown”, including the infamous St Scholastica’s Day riot of 1355, where conflict between townspeople and scholars became a deadly brawl. The performance uses this history to question whose version of Oxford gets preserved, and who gets pushed to the edges or even out of the story completely. It is particularly effective in a city where the university can sometimes feel like it’s whole identity, when there is clearly a lot more going on beyond the university walls.

The production also builds its immersion and has a lot of fun with its music. Each period is given its own musical identity, with the soundtrack helping to transport us between decades. The 1980s section was a particular highlight for me, with a burst of Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams kicking off a sequence of songs that had me giddily settling back into my bus seat. The music doesn't just sit underneath the action, it builds the atmosphere of each period and gives the journey a cinematic quality.

The cast do a lot with the production's unusual format. Ella Afghahi gives Huda a real human mix of uncertainty at times but also grit and determination. Many of the cast take on multiple roles. Joseph Akubeze impressively takes on the roles of Alain LeRoy Locke, Dudley Thompson and the bus conductor at the start of our journey and does these all with charm. I really enjoyed his take on Locke, his joy and grace felt significant particularly as Locke who in 1907 was the first Black Rhodes Scholar and faced significant prejudice during his time here. Lydia Danistan brings a fiery spirit to Catherine Singh, whose own Oxford story I find fascinating. Daughter to the Maharaja, she attended the university in the 1890s and later became involved in the women's suffrage movement. This cast brilliantly put across that every character has a story worth hearing, even when they only have a few moments to tell it.

However, there are moments where the ambition of the production works slightly against it. There are a lot of characters, time periods and stories to take in over the course of the journey and at times, meaning that I couldn’t spend as long with some of them as I would have liked. There were also a few occasions where it took me a second to establish when exactly we were. The section where we leave the bus and follow the action through the streets of Oxford was also difficult to experience, with narrow pavements, passing members of the public and the movement of the audience meant that some of the action was hard to see. Although there was clear audio, the cast multi-roling made it difficult to establish which characters we were with.

A similar experience is had on the bus at times whether you’re on the open-top level or inside the bus, the action can only ever be on one level at a time. The production team does an impressive job of taking a performance on the move, with crew members carrying transmitters and moving floor lights around to pick out the performers, but this isn't always an easy task when the audience is also having to move with them. These are understandable challenges of creating theatre in public and unique spaces, but they did mean that I occasionally felt I was missing parts of the story.

What makes When the Blackbird Sings work so well, is that it doesn't simply teach us Oxford's history. It asks us to consider our own place within it. The conversations through the show between Paulette and Huda about belonging, privilege and whether we follow the path placed in front of us or forge our own are particularly effective and emotive. Our journey concludes at the Schwarzman Centre, and when we arrive, the message that everyone's story matters has been built up through the entire journey. It is in this location that there is an invitation for the audience to leave a book we brought with us along with a message on a note and leave it for the next audience member, and to take one away with us. This is a beautiful way of continuing the show’s message that our stories can be passed on too.

As someone who studied at Oxford Brookes University, I already had my own established relationship with many of the places we visited, and that made the experience particularly special for me as I could appreciate it in a different light and learn more and build my connection with the area and its people. At the same time, I can see this being an excellent introduction to Oxford for someone with no connection to the city at all. There is so much here that is often overlooked, particularly the stories of local communities, women, immigrants and people of colour. When the Blackbird Sings reminds us that the history of Oxford isn't just in its libraries, colleges and grand buildings, it is in the people who live here, the communities they build and the changes they fight to make. I loved how unique this experience was, and its strong message of the importance of multiculturalism and community which I feel is vital to be heard in 2026. Where will the bus take you?

When the Blackbird Sings plays until 11^th October. Tickets from https://www.schwarzmancentre.ox.ac.uk/whats-on/when-the-blackbird-sings-t2pc