My culture picks: Inua Ellams

24 November 2017

Born in Nigeria in 1984, Inua Ellams is a playwright, poet, performer, artist and designer. As his play Barber Shop Chronicles returns to the National Theatre in London after sold out runs at West Yorkshire Playhouse, he shares his favourite book, play and exhibition.

F Scott Fitzgerald’s glittering novel of the Jazz Age was published in 1925 and exposes the moral emptiness surrounding the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby.

Ellams says: “It’s a classic I haven’t read before and it’s really beautifully written. There are gorgeous lines of description and ways of thinking and articulating what America must have been like at that time.

“I really like the emptiness in the book and how it reflects that strive towards the American dream, and the cutthroat way of how it seems to be achieved. I like how he shows the vacuous nature of Gatsby and those around him.

“I’m getting ready to see the film adaptations and see the decisions the directors made in adapting it for the screen.”

Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston stars as a US news anchorman who unravels live on air in an adaptation of the 1976 movie at the National Theatre in London.

Ellams says: “I thought it was phenomenal. I recently watched the film and loved it. I think the performances were perfect and there are scenes and speeches that I will never forget.

“I really liked the technical aspects of a setting the play in a contemporary news studio. The adverts in the news show are made so it seems we're still in the 70s but everything else seems to be set now. This makes the audience feel a little bit unsettled. I wasn’t sure where I was in time.

“But that adds to the creeping, haunting cloud that covers you when you leave the play. And Bryan Cranston was phenomenal. He was so overwhelming, human and broken in it."

The first large-scale exhibition of the American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat runs at the Barbican in London until 28 January 2018.

Ellams says: “They didn't make it feel as alive as it was in Basquiat’s time - they could have done with a little bit of music to make the exhibition a little bit buzzy.

“But other than that, learning so much about Basquiat, the absolute tragedy of him, his rise to fame, his relationship to Warhol, to music and to hip hop was quite something to behold.

“It was two floors of art and history, of black politics and Greek mythology and poetry. It’s really immersive and fantastic.”