Yard theatre, London Starkly staged panorama of Black female experience rushes through its scenes but is delivered with feeling by terrific cast

I t has been 50 years since this “choreopoem” by Ntozake Shange premiered on Broadway and brought the emotions and experiences of Black women to the stage. And yet, until now – in this production directed by Diane Page for the Yard theatre’s reopening – it has never received a major London run.

Collectively, the poems form a rich panorama: tales of domestic abuse bound up in a threatening marriage proposal; infidelity that brings a devastating HIV diagnosis; and an eight-year-old girl who is inspired by the Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture. In so many ways, they could have been written yesterday.

Journeying between US cities including Chicago, St Louis, New York and San Francisco, seven brightly coloured “Ladies” – played by five actors here – cry out their stories, ready to be heard. Shange’s lyrical writing mixes their pain with surges of joy, as each woman takes her turn in the spotlight while the others watch on in witness and support.

With repeated refrains and sections that feel like a chorus, the play becomes both a relief and a release. In Britain, we’re perhaps more familiar with Ryan Calais Cameron ’s stunning modern response, For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy .

And here, you can see the blend of poetry, rage, music and movement that inspired it. Page’s production is stark, with the Ladies’ voices left to drive its emotional highs and lows.

It could hang a little longer in each section; before we have time to fully absorb its effects, we’re already whizzing on to the next. We need a breath to catch up.

Supported by a mesmeric new soundtrack by Jammz and choreography by Ingrid Mackinnon, the piece beats with raw feeling. The Ladies break into soulful, almost spiritual moments of dance, as Ali Hunter’s lighting design sends rainbows pulsing across the stage floor.

The cast – Nadine Higgin, Tatenda Matsvai, Ibilola Rossi, Cherrelle Skeete and Alex Thomas-Smith – perform as though Shange’s words are being drawn from somewhere deep within them. In their moments of togetherness, the production reaches its most arresting force.

Leading us through the many colours and shades of life, their sisterhood makes a case for hope.

At the Yard theatre, London , until 17 October