Noughts & Crosses (NHB Modern Plays): Sabrina Mahfouz/Pilot Theatre adaptation

Sephy and Callum sit together on a beach. They are in love. It is forbidden.

Sephy is a Cross and Callum is a Nought. Between Noughts and Crosses there are racial and social divides. A segregated society teeters on a volatile knife-edge. As violence breaks out, Sephy and Callum draw closer, but this is a romance that will lead them into terrible danger.

This gripping Romeo and Juliet story by acclaimed writer Malorie Blackman is a captivating drama of love, revolution and what it means to grow up in a divided world.

Sabrina Mahfouz's stage adaptation first toured the UK in 2019 and won the Excellence in Touring category at the UK Theatre Awards. It was commissioned and presented by Pilot Theatre in co-production with Derby Theatre, Belgrade Theatre Coventry, Mercury Theatre Colchester and York Theatre Royal.

'Malorie Blackman's bestseller leaps off the stage in a fine new adaptation' Observer

'A searing insight into the injustices of the world... Mahfouz's adaptation highlights some deep truths and sharp parallels with the here and now' The Stage

Auteur

Malorie Blackman is acknowledged as one of today's most imaginative and convincing writers for young readers. The novels in her Noughts & Crosses sequence have won several awards, including the FCBG Red House Children's Book Award. Noughts & Crosses was dramatised as a six-part TV series and shown on BBC TV in 2020, as well as dramatised twice as a theatre play and produced as a radio drama for BBC Radio 4.

Malorie has won many other awards for her books. Both Hacker and Thief! won the Young Telegraph/Gimme 5 Award - Malorie is the only author to have won this award twice - while Hacker also won the WH Smith Book Award.

Her YA books include Boys Don't Cry, Noble Conflict, Jon For Short and Chasing The Stars - which she describes as her version of Shakespeare's Othello set in space.

Her work has appeared on screen, with Pig-Heart Boy, which was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, being adapted into a BAFTA-winning TV serial. Malorie also co-wrote the Doctor Who episode - Rosa.

Malorie has also written a number of titles for younger readers including Cloud Busting, which won the Smarties Silver Award, The Monster Crisp Guzzler, Robot Girl, Snow Dog, A Dangerous Game and My Friend's A Gris-Kwok. In 2005, Malorie was honoured with the Eleanor Farjeon Award in recognition of her distinguished contribution to the world of children's books. In 2008, she was honoured with an OBE for her services to Children's Literature. Malorie Blackman was the UK Children's Laureate 2013-2015.