I have concerns that, in order to ensure lucrative success for the purposes of keeping venues open and staff paid, mainstream production companies will revive outdated favourites to get butts in seats and boost their sales as fast as possible. I’m worried that capital gain and socio-political progress in the arts will clash even more than before and that, inevitably, profit will win over promoting innovative content from the voices we desperately need, that have been pushed aside for too long.
I firmly believe that Black British theatre is the best theatre out there. It has consistently been the most thought-provoking, most entertaining, and expressive theatre I’ve seen or read, and we need these compelling stories brought to their feet on the stage, and us brought to our feet in celebration for them. I have seen so many theatre companies come out with statements in support of Black Lives Matter, claiming that they will support and protect their Black cast and crew, but lacking any proof of this in their production history. I have been a part of university theatre groups that claim locating work by Black playwrights is difficult, and part of university courses on theatre’s history that did not have Black writers on the reading list. There is no excuse for this blatant erasure, so here’s a starting point to put an end to it.
Trigger Warnings: racist/homophobic slurs, alcohol abuse.
Trigger Warnings: sexual violence, implied self-harm, emotional manipulation, vomiting.
Trigger Warnings: references to alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy
Trigger Warnings: police brutality
