THE STORY: Jaja’s African Hair Braiding in Harlem is a salon full of funny, whip-smart, talented women ready to make you look and feel nice-nice. On this particularly muggy summer day, Jaja’s rule-following daughter Marie is running the shop while her mother prepares for her courthouse, green-card wedding—to a man no one seems to particularly like. Just like her mother, Dreamer Marie is trying to secure her future; she’s just graduated high school and all she wants to do is go to college. While Marie deals with the customers’ and stylists’ laugh-out-loud drama, news pierces the hearts of the women of the salon, galvanizing their connections and strengthening the community they have longed to make in the United States.
“Wickedly entertaining…a sparkling ensemble comedy as tautly woven as one of the intricate hairdos in Jaja’s Harlem salon.” —Washington Post.
“Bioh pays tribute to the bonds women share...You will be entertained, enlightened, and moved.” —New York Amsterdam News.
“Critic’s Pick!...Hot and hilarious…a riotously funny workplace comedy.” —The New York Times.
“Bristling with wit and drama...has all the energy and rich character interplay that her excellent award-winning,
School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play, possessed.” —The Daily Beast.
“Bioh breathes both joy and grief into these women within her stellar script, giving them each their own distinct personalities and lived-in experiences…The result is a play that is equally as affecting as it is hilarious.” —Entertainment Weekly.
