Blackness, Bermudian-ness, music and Babylon will take centre stage next week as Sion Symonds brings Babylon Cya Stop We Music to the island.

Mr Symonds, a Bermudian playwright, director and actor in the show, said that the piece “emerged collaboratively” as he worked on his dissertation for a Masters of Art in Contemporary Performance Practices at the University of East London.

He said: “The play features three bredrens that link up and sit off down Clearwater Beach after months overseas to unpack their respective experiences while out in ‘foreign’.

“While catching up, guys ask themselves and one another ‘What is Babylon?’, exploring Blackness, masculinity, queerness, community, Bermudian-ness and belonging.

“Babylon Cya Stop We Music asks how the colloquial Babylon, as popularised in Rastafari culture, appears in contemporary Afro-Caribbean culture and community.”

As part of the creative process, Mr Symonds said he went through a “multipronged investigation and research process”, including listening to more than 20 hours of music that mentions “Babylon” conceptually or by name.

He added: “I conducted several interviews of family, friends and community members on Babylon. From this, I made several verbatim theatre segments and the performers and I jigsawed these verbatim segments together into a script.

“We trialled different performance segments to my classmates, lecturers and project supervisor. This process culminated in a final performance at Camden People’s Theatre and a final grade of distinction.”

Mr Symonds said that the reaction to the show had been overwhelmingly positive, noting a comment from Oida Theatre, a fringe theatre company in London, which described the show as an “absolute wonder of a piece” and a “stunning maelstrom of both joy and anger in equal measure”.

He said: “My school provided me with a recording of the performance that I’ve shared sparingly and screened with community members.

“I continue to find encouragement with each sharing of the piece.”

While he said that the show got a warm reception in the UK, it was created with a Bermudian audience and a diversity of Bermudian experiences in mind.

Mr Symonds said: “I screened this piece at a house party on island a couple of years ago while with Jordan Carey, the assistant director/co-producer of this performance and Marcus Zebra Smith, one of my performers.

“It was my first time showing it to a Bermudian audience. That moment was so gratifying, humbling, encouraging and invigorating because of the way folks seemed to viscerally ingest and intimately feel the impact of the piece.

“This, of course, contrasts with a foreign audience which can still experience it as moving but didn’t grow up with pink sand in their hair and Man o’ War by their side. It’s not the same.”

Mr Symonds said those who come out to see the show next week can expect “humour, sincerity and inquiry”.

He added: “The first and last thing this play does is ask the audience to question their understanding of culture and identity.

“Furthermore, audiences can expect a 45-minute ‘maelstrom of joy and anger in equal measure’.”

The performances, sponsored by Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda and OutBermuda, will take place at 7pm on May 14, 15 and 16 at the Loquat Shop in Washington Mall.

Tickets are available online at loquatshop.com.