She worked as a story analyst for several Hollywood companies, including
Sundance,
New Line and
Disney. Her first screenplay,
Femi’s Thirtieth, was a semi-finalist in the annual
Nicholl screenwriting contest in
Los Angeles. It was also a semi-finalist in the Amblin/Chesterfield Screenwriting contest, also in LA. Her second screenplay,
Finishing School, also reached the Nicholl semi-finals. For some years she worked as an arts journalist, writing for publications including
The Times Literary Supplement,
The Voice,
The Guardian, the
New Statesman and
West Africa Magazine. In 1988 she set up Tama Communications, a writing, research and publicity service "sympathetic to the needs of the voluntary sector and black organisations", that was judged an "outstanding enterprise" and won the ''London's Top Youth Enterprise'' title in the 1989 London Livewire competition to find the best young business brains. She has also taught at several universities, among them Goldsmiths, University of London, and
Pan-African University,
Lagos, Nigeria, as well as at such institutions as London's
City Lit and in
Zimbabwe at the Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa. In 2015, she joined the
University of Greenwich, where she is a senior lecturer in Creative Writing. Her work for radio includes being on the writing team of the award-winning BBC drama series
Westway. a
Nollywood-style film drama drawing on the real-life experiences of people living with
sickle-cell disease, which has been disseminated widely on television channels and elsewhere in the UK, USA and West Africa, reaching more than 12 million people in outreach campaigns. She subsequently wrote the screenplay for
Dazzling Mirage (2014), adapted from the novel of the same name by Olayinka Abimbola Egbokhare, produced and directed by
Tunde Kelani.
''Pandora's Box'' Solanke's first stage play to be produced, ''Pandora's Box'', which was initially showcased in July 2008 as part of
Tiata Fahodzi's Tiata Delights at the
Almeida Theatre, had its world premiere and sold-out shows at the
Arcola Theatre,
Hackney, in 2012, subsequently touring nationally in 2014 to 16 venues around the UK, the largest-ever tour for a black play in the UK. "An exuberant and thought-provoking mix of comedy, tragedy and family drama", ''Pandora's Box'' deals with the dilemma of a British-Nigerian mother, on holiday in Lagos with her streetwise son, about whether to leave him in a strict Nigerian boarding-school or bring him back to the battlefields of inner-city London. The play won five-star reviews and was praised as "Honest, simple, enthralling … absolutely brilliant" (
The Public Reviews) and "Firecracker theatre … touching … hilarious" (
The Stage). Reviewing it for
The Guardian,
Lyn Gardner wrote: "Pandora's Box buzzes with life and the tensions of real people struggling to make the best of their lives while dealing with the legacies left from the choices made by a previous generation." Another of several positive notices came from Sarah Lewis of the
Hackney Citizen, who described the play as "At times laugh out loud funny, at times heartbreaking....essentially a very moving and funny play. Excellent." ''Pandora's Box'' is published by
Oberon Books.
East End Boys, West End Girls In 2015, Solanke made her directorial debut with her second play,
East End Boys, West End Girls, in a London tour that began at the Arcola Theatre before playing in venues including CLF Arts Cafe in
Peckham, the
Saatchi Gallery in
Chelsea, and the
Bernie Grant Arts Centre in
Tottenham. Reviews variously described the play as "a grim view of a vast and disparate city...occasionally quite sweet and always earnest" and "thought-provoking.... It goes beyond mere entertainment and poses some knotty but ever pertinent questions. The artful Solanke handles the social commentary with sensitivity and intelligence."
The Court Must Have a Queen Solanke's latest play is
The Court Must Have a Queen about
Henry VIII's marriage to
Anne of Cleves. It features African Tudor musician
John Blanke, who played in the courts of both
Henry VII and
Henry VIII and is the first black person for whom there is both an image and a record in the UK. The play was commissioned by
Historic Royal Palaces and produced by
Hampton Court Palace. It premiered in June 2018, performed in the Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace, where
Shakespeare's acting company the
King's Men performed in 1603.
Other projects Solanke is also developing a project and play about
Phillis Wheatley entitled
Phillis in London, which was showcased at the
Greenwich Book Festival in 2018. A 90-minute play by Solanke titled
Phillis in Boston was presented at the
Old South Meeting House in November 2023. Solanke is a contributor to the 2019 anthology
New Daughters of Africa edited by
Margaret Busby. ==Works==