Other Side of the Game

‘I don’t think you can expect society to change if you’re not ready to take the first step.’

In the 1970s, Beverly walks into an office of Black activists, wanting to join the Movement, and has to prove she’s committed enough to fight.

Some forty years later, in the Hip Hop Generation, Nicole reunites with her ex-boyfriend on a basketball court, wondering where he’s been, when a police officer stops them.

In her striking debut play, Other Side of the Game, Amanda Parris turns the spotlight on the Black women who organise communities, support their incarcerated loved ones, and do battle with institutions, living each day by a ride-or-die philosophy, strengthening their voices and demanding to be heard.

Other Side of the Game was premiered at Aki Studio Theatre, Toronto, co-produced by Cahoots Theatre and Obsidian Theatre Company in 2017. It won the Governor General’s Literary Award in 2019.