Buttercup is the story of a young woman strong enough to finally make herself heard.
She is live streaming an informal spoken word gig to her online followers. As she takes the mic, she desperately hopes that her audience will include the one person who needs to hear her truth: her mother.
Weaving words, poems, and memories, she shares her story. From a vulnerable little girl in a bedroom in Kinshasa to a bold young woman partying and performing in Liverpool. Only now is she ready to revisit a past that she has locked away, to recognise the power behind her mother’s warnings, and to accept the truth that she was never to blame for what happened to her.
Written and performed by Dorcas Seb.
A co-production by 20 Stories High and Tigerlily Productions from an original idea by Associate Artist Odile Mukete.
Directed by Julia Samuels. Co-produced by Jenny Monks (Tigerlily Productions) and Leanne Jones (20 Stories High). Production Design by Miriam Nabarro.
Buttercup is 20 Stories High’s second BBC commission, following I Told My Mum I Was Going on an R.E. Trip, originally presented by BBC’s Performance Live in 2018 and re-released on iPlayer as part of the BBC’s Culture in Quarantine series.
All production photos by Wes Rashid.