Jaja’s African Hair Braiding returns to Hammersmith, proof London wasn’t done with it

Some plays are built around a plot. Jocelyn Bioh built hers on a single address. Jaja’s African Hair Braiding never leaves a busy Harlem braiding salon, where neighbourhood women come to have their hairstyle dreams realised by a crew of West African immigrant braiders, and it never leaves a single hot summer day. It is classical unity of place and time, a shop turned pressure cooker, where demanding customers, secrets, laughter and betrayal all come through the same door. London audiences clearly recognised the architecture: the production sold out, and the theatre that staged it is bringing it straight back.

The Lyric Hammersmith Theatre has confirmed the return of its production of Bioh’s play, reuniting the Ghanaian-American playwright with director Monique Touko, the same partnership behind the hit staging of School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play. Revivals of new plays usually wait years for a second life; this one is coming back to the same stage within a year of its premiere, for five weeks only. The cast and full creative team have not yet been announced, which leaves open the question every returning fan will ask: whether the company that made the salon feel alive will walk back through the door.

Ornate plaster ceiling rose and crystal chandelier inside the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre auditorium — The plaster ceiling of the Lyric Hammersmith auditorium. Photo: Alan Hughes / geograph.org.uk via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

The canvas is deliberately small and deliberately crowded. A group of West African immigrant braiders works through a long summer day, handling demanding customers, secrets and lies, laughter and betrayal, while each woman nurses ambitions of her own. Bioh’s trick is that the comedy never stops, even as it becomes clear how much these dreams depend on a city that does not always want them. The shop is a refuge, and the play knows exactly how fragile refuges can be.

In the announcement, Bioh describes herself as “so moved” by how warmly UK audiences took to the play, and says she now feels part of the British theatre community. Touko says the return proves the play’s “power to unite and represent”, and invites audiences back to “listen, learn and laugh”. Rachel O’Riordan, the Lyric’s Artistic Director, frames it more simply: the success of the run proved how powerful the story is.

The pedigree explains the confidence. The play premiered on Broadway in Manhattan Theatre Club’s 2023–2024 season, directed there by Whitney White, extended its limited run twice, live-streamed its final performances to meet demand and launched a US tour at the end of 2024. It won two Tony Awards, including Dede Ayite’s prize for costume design, which made her the first Black woman to win that category for a play.

The return runs from 28 January to 27 February 2027 at the Lyric Hammersmith in west London, with press night on 2 February. The schedule includes audio described, captioned, BSL and chilled performances. Priority booking for Lyric Friends and Members is already open, public booking opens on Friday 2 October at 10am, and tickets start at £10. The production is a co-production between the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, Madison Wells Live and Chase This Productions, co-produced by Joshua Berg Creative.

A salon lives on its regulars, the customers who return week after week. It seems right that Bioh’s play has earned a few of its own.

Tags: theatre revivals, Jaja's African Hair Braiding, Jocelyn Bioh, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, Monique Touko, Tony Awards