Review: Crescent Cell, Sickle Moon at Brady Arts & Community Centre ★★★★★
The latest from playwright Mojisola Adebayo is an urgent, eye-opening exploration of care in crisis for people living with sickle cell disease.
★★★★★ Crescent Cell, Sickle Moon | Brady Arts & Community Centre | 8 May 2026
Returning to similar territory as the excellent Family Tree, Mojisola Adebayo’s new piece focuses on healthcare responses to people experiencing sickle cell crisis – and, like that previous work which shone a forensic spotlight on medical racism, Crescent Cell, Sickle Moon pulls no punches in highlighting inequalities in our healthcare system.
Based on insights drawn from a research study led by Dr Stephen Hibbs at Queen Mary University of London, Crescent Cell, Sickle Moon invites the audience to engage with the realities of a life lived with sickle cell, and the experience of seeking care during moments of crisis.
Omar Austin’s Bro perches uncomfortably on a stool, barely keeping a lid on his pain and distress. His what for care is interminable, the patience of the staff thin from the off. Is he really in crisis? Has he taken his medication? What has he done wrong to bring him to this point?
His Sis, Juliet Agnes, is desperately trying to reach him, to offer him the support and compassion he needs. Can the NHS ever hope to provide that care, so seemingly embedded the systemic prejudices which paint sickle cell as a Black condition, so seemingly fixed the institutional inadequacies which result disproportionately negative outcomes?
Adebayo creatively weaves a compelling, engaging and at times darkly funny tale around this undeniably bleak subject-matter – but, characteristically, finds hope and positivity and an insistent, rebellious optimism amidst the darkness. In the fine tradition of Afrofuturism, Crescent Cell, Sickle Moon re-centres the voice of the patient in search of compassionate, effective care – and ultimately imagines a hopeful future beyond pain and distrust.
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