Playwright Jocelyn Bioh-Smith brings her signature wit and sharp observational eye to Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, a Tony Award-winning comedy that lands at Lyric Hammersmith Theatre this spring.
Set over the course of one sweltering day in a bustling Harlem braiding salon, the play captures the humour, tension and intimacy of a space where strangers become confidants and everyday moments carry deeper truths.
Drawing on her own experiences growing up in New York and years spent in braiding chairs, Bioh crafts a vivid, fast-paced portrait of community, identity and the immigrant experience – all delivered with a generous dose of laughter.
As the production makes its UK debut, she reunites with director Monique Touko to bring this vibrant, character-filled world to life for London audiences.
How does it feel bringing Jaja’s to London for the first time?
I’m excited about bringing the show to London. I have such a huge respect and love for the UK theatre community. I had put on Jaja’s African Hair Braiding
in New York on Broadway very shortly after Schoolgirls with African Mean Girls had premiered here in the UK. For this play I knew I wanted to reconnect with Monique Touko who directed Schoolgirls. She knows how’s to bring the magic to the stage, so I leave that in her hands.
Jaja’s is set in 2019 in a Harlem hair braiding shop on a very hot day when the air conditioner is not working properly. The play spans across 12 hours, but we’ve condensed it in 100 minutes. In that time, you meet 17 different characters between customers, vendors, immigrant hair braiders who are at the heart of the community and all reveal a piece of their life in one setting.
The women in the shop are immigrants with big dreams. Did it feel challenging to balance comedy with the more serious themes of identity and belonging?
When I wrote the play six years ago, I didn’t know that at the time the topic of immigration would be so timely. I’m trying to humanise the people behind the policies and really get people to understand the immigrant experience from, I would say, my own perspective and not the media’s.
When writing the dialogue – were you drawing from your own experiences in braiding salons?
I’m a born and bred New Yorker and I’ve been getting my hair braided since I was four or five years old. I’ve spent a lot of time in hair braiding shops and have seen a lot that takes place in a salon. It was important to me to put as much comedy, humour and drama into what could happen when you’re just trying to get simple box braids. I think there’s a lot of vulnerability that happens in places like hair and beauty salons. These are intimate, and even vulnerable experiences with people that you don’t know very well. The play really speaks to that process as well, as well as showing cool hair braiding styles.
What piece of advice has always stuck with you?
When I was a young playwright trying to figure out my voice, I read a quote that to this day, I don’t know who wrote it, or rather who said it. But it’s kind of become my thesis statement as a playwright, which is “comedy is just a funny way of being serious.” And ultimately, I think I’d like to infuse a lot of that “spoonful of sugar” mentality into my work, where I can bring people and invite people in and know that they’re going to have a good time.
Tell us something we don’t know about the production behind this play!
Fun fact: our cast took a one-week workshop with hairstylists to learn how to braid and canerow.
If the salon from the play was real, what would its Google review say?
That’s a great question! I think the rating would be three and a half stars, maybe four. Jaja runs a tight ship and her pricing is competitive. You get a lot of bang for your buck.
Book tickets here. Images c/o Angela Orellana
