
Three Birds
Janice Okoh(Author)
Nick Hern Books (Publisher)
Published on 28. February 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
112 pages
978-1-84842-276-6 (ISBN)
Description
A startling and darkly comic drama about childhood, family and fantasy. Winner of the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, and adapted into a six-part BBC television drama, Just Act Normal.
Siblings Tiana, Tionne and Tanika have found themselves home alone. Tiana's keeping it all together by taking charge of housework and homework.
But Tionne's experiments are getting stranger and Tanika's starting to act up. As the outside world begins to press in, the three will do anything to keep their secret safe from the adults who come to call.
Janice Okoh's play Three Birds won the 2011 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting and was first performed at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in 2013 before transferring to the Bush Theatre, London.
It was adapted into an acclaimed six-part television drama for BBC3, Just Act Normal, first broadcast in 2025.
'A play that is as humane as it is savage... as funny as it is alarming. It is written with as much warmth as it is with truth. It's funny and theatrical and alert and alive. It's terrific.' Simon Stephens, playwright and Chair of the Judges for the 2011 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting
Siblings Tiana, Tionne and Tanika have found themselves home alone. Tiana's keeping it all together by taking charge of housework and homework.
But Tionne's experiments are getting stranger and Tanika's starting to act up. As the outside world begins to press in, the three will do anything to keep their secret safe from the adults who come to call.
Janice Okoh's play Three Birds won the 2011 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting and was first performed at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in 2013 before transferring to the Bush Theatre, London.
It was adapted into an acclaimed six-part television drama for BBC3, Just Act Normal, first broadcast in 2025.
'A play that is as humane as it is savage... as funny as it is alarming. It is written with as much warmth as it is with truth. It's funny and theatrical and alert and alive. It's terrific.' Simon Stephens, playwright and Chair of the Judges for the 2011 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting
Reviews / Votes
'Deals in harsh realism but hovers, brilliantly suspended, between dark comedy, thriller and an expressive human sympathy worthy of Tennessee Williams' * The Times * 'Like a Pitchfork Disney for the Beiber / Primark generation' * A Younger Theatre *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 197 mm
Width: 127 mm
Thickness: 5 mm
Weight
2268 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84842-276-6 (9781848422766)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Person
Janice Okoh won the Bruntwood Playwrighting Competition in 2011 with her play Three Birds, which was staged at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in 2013, before transferring to the Bush Theatre, London. The play was shortlisted for the Verity Bargate Award and the Alfred Fagon Award, and was adapted into a six-part BBC television drama in 2025.
Her other plays include The Gift (Theatre Royal, Stratford East, 2020) and Egusi Soup (Menagerie Theatre Company & Eastern Angles, 2009).
Her other plays include The Gift (Theatre Royal, Stratford East, 2020) and Egusi Soup (Menagerie Theatre Company & Eastern Angles, 2009).