The production received high profile coverage including Time Out, Women’s Hour, and Times Radio. Paulette graduated from Rose Bruford College in 1982, after which she and two fellow students – Bernardine Evaristo and Patricia Hilaire – set up their own company, called Theatre of Black Women. Paulette went on to direct the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony, and is also Artistic Director at Talawa and Chair of Clean Break. Paulette directed Fences with Lenny Henry in the West End, and Dr Faustus at the Globe and Gem of the Ocean at Kiln Theatre.

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The Fellowship synopsis:

Children of the Windrush generation, sisters Dawn and Marcia Adams grew up in 1980s London and were activists on the front line against the multiple injustices of that time. Decades on, they find they have little in common beyond family… Dawn struggles to care for their dying mother, whilst her one surviving son is drifting away from her. Meanwhile, high-flying lawyer Marcia’s affair with a married politician might be about to explode and destroy her career. Can the Adams sisters navigate the turmoil that lies ahead, leave the past behind, and seize the future with the bond between them still intact?

The world premiere of Roy Williams’ The Fellowship, directed by Paulette Randall, is, by turns, an electrifying, hilarious, gripping tale set in modern Britain.

The Stage online review:

‘Paulette Randall’s production takes care to ensure that the Blackness in this family drama is not portrayed as a singular thing. The music is full of Kylie Minogue, Bee Gees and Culture Club. Where her direction really shines, though, is in the area of accent and dialect, where fusion of Jamaican patois, inner-city London dialect, received pronunciation and a touch of Cockney are all interchangeably used. It makes for a truly authentic reflection of Black Britishness.’

Visit The Stage online here to read the full review.

Time Out review

‘Roy Williams’s masterful new play is an exploration of Black sisterhood’

‘Roy Williams’s complex, heartbreaking new play is full of the presence of a woman we hardly see: Sylvia, a veteran of the Windrush generation, who lies upstairs dying as her two daughters struggle with her legacy.’

‘Marcia (a self-contained and confident Suzette Llewellyn) has internalised her mother’s admonishments that a Black woman needs to work twice as hard as her white counterparts, and is a successful barrister who’s having an affair with a white politician. Her sister Dawn (a compelling fiery Cherrelle Skeete) isn’t so compliant. She cherishes memories of being on the frontline in the Brixton riots, and nurses fury at the British establishment that nearly deported her ageing mother.’

‘Williams’s play has this brilliant, slowly unfurling quality where every conversation is freighted with a tension that takes a while to reveal its cause.’

‘Much like its fantasy namesake, ‘The Fellowship’ is one of those stories that you emerge from feeling like you’ve gone on an epic journey with the people in it. It’s full of moments that stretch out and become dreamlike, aided by designer Libby Watson’s wonderfully surreal set with its long curving staircase.’

Visit Time Out online here to read the full review