'everything i do kills you. i don't know if i love you because i have to or because i can't help it… i don't know if both of those things are bad.'

It's one of those hot April evenings that feel like summer, and the heat is stifling in Sissy's London flat as she dances, unrestrained, beautiful, alive…

But when sixteen-year-old Eshe arrives, powerful emotions come to the surface – and the two women are locked in a dance where freedom clashes with duty.

babriye bukilwa's play …cake is a psychological drama that asks if the cycle of generational trauma can ever be broken. Can queer, Black femmes find love and belonging when the soil beneath them – and the climate around them – is hostile? It was first performed at Theatre Peckham, London, in 2021, directed by the venue's Associate Director, malakaï sargeant.