Munya Chawawa, the comedian, content creator, and documentary filmmaker who rose to prominence during the so-called “golden era” of online video, is shifting his focus toward the stage. The 33-year-old performer is preparing for his professional acting debut in a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which runs at the Chichester Festival Theatre from 18 September to 17 October.
For Chawawa, this transition represents a conscious effort to move away from the relentless demands of social media. He describes himself as being on a “conscious mission” to reduce his screen time, noting that he is among the many people who pick up their phones hundreds of times a day. While he acknowledges that digital platforms provided the foundation for his career, he feels the current environment has become a “dogfight” where even high-quality creative work is quickly buried by algorithmic shifts.
His upcoming role in A Midsummer Night’s Dream places him in a 1990s-inspired setting, a decade he views with nostalgia for its “analogue abandon.” In this production, he portrays a character named Bottom, reimagined as a member of the Young Conservatives, while the character of Theseus is depicted as a Tory MP responsible for shutting down illegal raves. To prepare for the role, Chawawa has been studying the nuances of Shakespearean language, including quatrains and anacreontics, with a studious approach he describes as taking the work “super seriously.”
The production’s focus on the 1990s rave scene resonates with Chawawa, who has spent time immersing himself in archival footage of illegal outdoor parties. He notes that these gatherings occurred before the ubiquity of smartphones, allowing attendees to experience a sense of freedom without the anxiety of being recorded. He admits that his own “two-step” has become stiffer in recent years due to the constant fear that a wrong move could be captured on camera and shared online.
Despite his desire to “jump ship” from the pressures of social media, Chawawa maintains he has no resentment toward the platforms that launched his career. He gained fame through satirical characters such as the upper-class drill rapper Unknown P and a parody of chef Jonny Oliver. Since then, he has expanded his portfolio to include Bafta-nominated documentaries, appearances on Taskmaster, and stand-up comedy. He views his move into theatre as the logical next step in his professional evolution.
Beyond his own acting career, Chawawa is actively working to make theatre more accessible to younger, diverse audiences through his Black Boys Theatre Club. The initiative was born after he attended a performance of For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy, a play he considers the best he has ever seen. Recognizing that he had previously felt out of place in theatre spaces as a Black man, he wanted to ensure others felt welcomed.
The club organizes monthly outings for groups of teenagers to see a variety of plays, ranging from Dracula to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, followed by discussions at Nando’s. Chawawa emphasizes that the goal is not necessarily to inspire the participants to become actors, but to help them realize that theatre can be a safe space where they belong. He believes that as more people seek to disconnect from digital experiences, live theatre will experience a significant resurgence.
Data from Arts Council England indicates that in 2023, 10% of theatre audiences in the UK were from Black, Asian, or ethnically diverse backgrounds. While Chawawa praises the efforts of theatres to open their doors to more diverse groups, he argues that lower ticket prices and a broader societal shift are necessary to drive meaningful change in attendance figures. The report also notes that i’ve obviously done a super-deep dive into rave culture and watched loads of rave footage from all these little free parties where they would find an empty field,” he says. The report also notes that they came before everyone had phones and cameras – and Chawawa, 33, feels a pang of nostalgia for that age of analogue abandon, while some footage exists of those illicit outdoor parties. The report also notes that i absolutely miss an era where we were dancing for ourselves and not for a digital world somewhere,” he says. The report also notes that we’re all phone addicts,” Chawawa continues. The report also notes that the average person’s picking up their phone 200 times a day. The report also notes that the top comments under all the videos I’ve been watching are people who were at those raves saying, ‘I loved being able to dance, maybe get a little high, maybe get too sweaty for too long, and know there was no record of that, and interestingly. The report also notes that and says he “took for granted” the brief time before any and every fun occasion was recorded and posted for posterity, chawawa was in his teens when social media and smartphones took off. The report also notes that so yeah, I do definitely pine for those non-digital, in-person experiences, and I envy my parents for having them.
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