Rhianna Ilube is a playwright, dramaturg, film programmer & facilitator from London. She is interested in making - and supporting - work that is formally experimental, a bit magical, possibly comedic, sometimes participatory, and often inspired by historical events. Also, she just really likes scripts and all the things you can do with them.
Rhianna is currently on a year-long writers attachment at the Royal Court Theatre. She is also writing 81 (Life), the second play in the 'Islington Trilogy' at the Almeida Theatre, in collaboration with Cardboard Citizens and All Change.
Her debut play, Samuel Takes A Break in Male Dungeon No. 5 After A Long But Generally Successful Day of Tours, was set during Ghana's 'Year of Return' tourism iniative. It is about a day in the life of a tour guide called Samuel. The play was a finalist for the 2024 Susan Smith Blackburn Award, Highly Commended for the Soho Theatre's Verity Bargate Award, a finalist for the 2025 Offies (Off West-End) Awards, and shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Playwriting and Channel 4stories. Samuel... premiered in February 2024 at The Yard Theatre in London, directed by Anthony Simpson-Pike, for an extended 6-week run.
Rhianna was previously Associate Director at Coney, one of the UK's leading interactive theatre companies, where she conceived of, co-wrote and co-directed 1884, an immersive game-theatre show. The show was inspired by the legacy of the Berlin Conference of 1884, as well as this exhibition and The Sims. That combination did somehow work. 1884 was supported by Arts Council England and had a 3-week sold out run at Shoreditch Town Hall and Brighton Festival in Spring 2024. 1884 will tour the UK and Europe in late 2025, supported by the Arts Council.
Alongside playwriting, Rhianna is a film programmer and host for queer film festival BFI Flare, otherwise known as "her favourite 10 days of the year". She will be happy if you book to see a film there.
She also works on projects in various capacities across film, theatre, community arts, events and interactive experiences. She is a playwriting supervisor for York University MA students, and the facilitator of 'The Reading Room', a weekly play-reading workshop hosted at Stratford East Theatre. Rhianna has led creative workshops and talks at schools, universities, and venues including: Southbank Centre, Somerset House, Central School for Speech and Drama, UAL, NYU London, Cambridge, and Rose Bruford. She is on the board of the Omnibus Theatre, an award-winning independent theatre in Clapham for new writing, and is a mentor for Arts Emergency.
Rhianna is a 2024 Macdowell fellow, and a 2025 writer-in-residence at the Siena Art Institute in Italy. She holds an MA in Writing for Performance & Dramaturgy from Goldsmiths, and a Double-First Class BA in Politics, Psychology & Sociology from Cambridge. She lives in East London, but can now be found regaularly planning ways to spend time with different trees in various forests for extended periods of time.
Feel free to get in touch below:
Writing Representation:
jessicastewart[@]independenttalent.com
Other Inquiries:
rhiannailube[@]gmail.com
To work with Rhianna as a dramaturg for your script or project, find out more here.
Published Texts:
Samuel Takes A Break... - Nick Hern Books, 2024
Selected Reviews:
Samuel Takes A Break, 4* Time Out
Samuel Takes A Break, 4* The Arts Desk
Samuel Takes A Break, 4* The Stage
Samuel Takes A Break, 5* The New Current
1884, 4* Time Out
1884, 5* Theatre and Tonic
1884, 5* A Youngish Perspective
One Night Only - shorts programme, 4* The Reviews Hub
Selected Press:
A Letter, The Yard 2024
Interview with Lyn Gardner, Stagedoor 2024
Two new plays in London up for $25,000 Susan Smith Blackburn prize, Guardian 2024
Interview: Theatre-maker Rhianna Ilube on immersive, anti-colonial show 1884, To Do List London
The Yard reveals two world premieres for 2024, Broadway World
Soho Theatre announces Soho Six 23/24, Theatre Weekly
BBC Writersroom's Voices 2023 - London Hub
Fellowships, Grants & Residencies:
Royal Court Theatre Writer-on-Attachment, 2025/26
Royal Court Theatre Writers Retreat, Shropshire 2025
Siena Art Institute Residency, Italy 2025
Erasmus+ Hive Symposium, Brussels 2025
Macdowell Fellowship, USA 2024
Royal Court Writers Room, 2024
BBC Voices Writers Room, 2023
Soho Theatre Six, 2023
Sky Table Read, 2023
Oxford Playhouse Playmakers, 2022
Royal Court x Sister Productions, 2022
UCL IAS Creative Fellowship, 2022
Royal Court SW1, 2022
Birmingham x Sky Comedy Rep, 2021
Omnibus Theatre Engine Room, 2021
Royal Court Introduction to Playwriting, 2021
Falmouth University: Reporting Earth, 2019
Spotify Sound-Up Bootcamp, 2019
Summer Scriptwriting Base - Arte Urbana Collectif, Bulgaria 2019
Awards & Recognition:
Finalist, Industry and Inclusion Category, Off West-End Awards 2025
Nominee, Most Promising New Playwright, Off West-End Awards 2025
Finalist, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2024
Highly Commended & Finalist, Soho Theatre Verity Bargate Award 2023
Shortlisted, Channel 4's 4stories 2022
Longlisted, Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, 2022
Shortlisted, Women's Prize for Playwriting 2021
Selected quotes:
"[Samuel Takes A Break] hits the sweet spot with its engaging characters, its compelling story and its beautifully created sense of place. What lifts this play beyond much that is available in London theatre now is its willingness to make serious, even essential, arguments about how the past infects the present without allowing he didactic to overpower the dramatic." - The Arts Desk
"It’s those wild swings from one extreme to the other that make this play so fresh and fascinating; its unpredictability, its seriousness of purpose and its lightness of touch in achieving it." - Time Out London
"Samuel Takes a Break in Male Dungeon No. 5 After a Long but Generally Successful Day of Tours is the type of clear, honest, raw, emotional theatre that is rare. Not since Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem have I seen a play capture the very essence of its subject and themes in the way Ilube has done here." - The New Current
"[Samuel] shudders and then is immobilised by the cave’s ghosts. He seems physically repulsed by the guests’ requests for selfies. But he knows, still, his job is to give them the most authentic tour possible. He could snap at any second, and Ilube’s strength as a writer is willing us to make him shout out." - The Guardian
On 1884 - "...the real thrill here is contrasting Ilube’s work in her fabulously inventive but also fairly straight play Samuel Takes A Break with this uncategorisable piece. I can’t wait to see what she does next." - Time Out London
"When Rhianna has arrived you will know about it. The force and precision of her dramaturgy transforms a room and stretches a text to hit corners of its potential that, as a writer, it’s impossible to see. Her thorough interrogation and generous exigence on pulling through the story that’s waiting to be told makes her a joy and blessing to work with." - Zahra Dalilah - playwright & community activist (see dramaturgy work here)