For Theresa Ikoko, writing is about “loving people back.” As the playwright and screenwriter recalled in an interview with International Cinephile Society, she had this epiphany when she saw “Black Panther.” “[I] got really emotional, not because of what was on the screen but because it was the first time I felt that Marvel was loving me back,” she explained. “Until that moment I hadn’t realized that I was in a one-sided relationship with Marvel. So now I want to write stories that love people back.”
As a storyteller, Ikoko is most interested in connecting with audience members who aren’t used to seeing themselves represented. As such, black women and girls tend to be the focus of her work. “I always write about black women, and it’s always very important to me that I write stories about my community that feel like my community,” she said. “Films like ‘Mustang,’ which I love, let you see human beings. I think we underestimate audiences so much, particularly when we present them with people who don’t look like them. I always say to decision makers, ‘you underestimate white audiences because you assume that white people do not want to see other people if they aren’t shooting guns.’ People just like people.”
Ikoko has explored the complexities of race, class, and gender in her plays, including the award-winning “Girls,” and the film “Rocks,” which she wrote alongside Claire Wilson. The former focuses on three young Nigerian women abducted by extremists. The latter, directed by Sarah Gavron, sees a teen girl raising her younger brother on her own in London. Scared she’ll be separated from him if anyone finds out their living situation, she and her friends work together to circumvent the authorities. Described as “a love letter to [her] sister,” writing “Rocks” was Ikoko’s way of spotlighting “black women who I thought had to be really strong but had these soft centers of joy and love that I wanted to celebrate,” per Eye for Film. “It was really a story about sisterhood and appreciation and the transformative power of that.”
Much of Ikoko’s writing, including “Rocks” is inspired by workshops she has led for young women, inmates, gang members, and other marginalized communities. She penned her first play, “Normal,” when she was working with prisoners. She and Wilson formulated the story for “Rocks” after meeting with young women in schools and community centers, and participating in casting workshops. “We started doing workshops with around 30 [potential actresses], and out of those 30 about 10 seemed more consistent. Then out of those 10 we took the seven girls that you see [in the film],” she explained. “That took nine months to a year, and me and Claire went away, reading the notes on the workshops … trying to find what the story was, trying to find an angle that felt like it would be honoring the process.”
The story didn’t quite come together until Ikoko and Wilson decided to focus on sisterhood — and collaborate with their actresses. “Between us, the crew, the creative team, amongst the girls we became big sisterhood to this little sisterhood, and it felt like what I was trying to say in this story was happening in real life,” Ikoko recalled. “So I took the story to them and they all responded so generously and so openly, and took it apart and put it back together, and it became this bigger beautiful thing.” She added, “What was supposed to be a love story to my sister became a love story by 100 women to 100 women, to 100 more. And it’s hopefully become this chain of love.”
What’s more, Ikoko hopes her work has the power to “change the lives of 14-year-old girls in school, of university students, and of grown men behind prison doors.” Upon winning the Alfred Fagon prize for “Girls,” she told the award organization she wants her writing to help the underrepresented feel seen — something she didn’t have much growing up in an East London estate housing.
“I hope someone, who wouldn’t have, decides to read a book; or someone turns on the TV and sees themselves; or someone is reluctantly dragged along to a theater, and then themselves drag a reluctant friend to a theater a week, month, or year later,” Ikoko emphasized. “Maybe one day, in 20 years, when a girl or boy from an estate in Hackney … is being asked about why she writes or teaches or whatever, she/he will remember that book, or film, or play they read/saw, by a girl from an estate in Hackney.”
It doesn’t really matter which medium she writes for — film, theater, television — Ikoko is just determined for her work to spotlight and connect with unsung communities. “I’d love to put my hand to anything,” she’s said. “I love character, that is my whole passion. I just love people and to write about people in a way that maybe we haven’t seen before.”
“Rocks” is Ikoko’s feature screenwriting debut. She’s also written for miniseries “Snatches: Moments from Women’s Lives.” Her plays include “The Race Card” and “Visiting Hours,” and her monologue “FKA Queens” was published in anthology “Rebel Voices: Monologues for Women by Women.” Ikoko is a Channel 4 Playwrights Scheme alumna and received the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright for “Girls.”
“Rocks” is the 2020 Athena Film Festival’s Closing Film. It opens in UK theaters April 10. No word on a U.S. release yet.
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