Last summer, on a trip to the West End to watch Hamilton with my mum, as we were tucking into some outrageously overpriced ice-cream, she glanced around and muttered: “You know, I love the theatre, but it’s such a shame there are so few other black people here.”
It has become something of a regular refrain. Even in a city like London — and even at one of the most racially diverse West End shows in history like Hamilton — we always seem to stick out like a sore thumb.
It is at best deeply naive and ahistorical to pretend black people are simply self-selecting out of these kind of cultural experiences.
Which is why, when I heard that American playwright Jeremy O Harris’s new West End show Slave Play, starring Kit Harington and Olivia Washington, will feature two nights open to an “all-black identifying audience” to allow black audiences to watch the play “free from the white gaze”, my first thought was to find a ticket link. My second thought was of the inevitable backlash that would unfold.
“Black Out” nights like this have become relatively common in the UK in recent years. But last year, when one night out of the 29 showings of Tambo & Bones at the Theatre Royal Stratford East was designated for black audiences, it was labelled “misguided and a bit sinister” by (white) former cabinet minister Damian Green. Wanjiru Njoya, a university law lecturer, also described it as “racist to white people”.
Harris defended the decision on BBC Radio 4, saying: “It is a necessity to radically invite [black people] in with initiatives that say ‘you’re invited’. Specifically you.” And he is right. In a perfect world, these schemes, just like positive action initiatives, wouldn’t be necessary. But it is at best deeply naive and ahistorical, and at worst wilfully ignorant, to pretend black people are simply coincidentally self-selecting out of these kind of cultural experiences.
And now, American actress and playwright June Carryl, who brought her show Blue about police racism to the Seven Dials Playhouse this month, has also announced her show will hold two Black Out nights of its own.
“It’s one night,” Carryl said. “No one's saying you can't go. But if you begrudge and take offence to that one night, then what you are saying is, ‘this has to be mine, too.’ And if that is honestly how you feel, then maybe the problem is you."
It is, of course, illegal for theatres to actually enforce a ban on any group — usually Black Out nights are simply advertised as such, to encourage black people to attend. So the enraged keyboard warriors can purchase tickets and go along if they really want to. But I doubt they will, because they’d probably feel slightly awkward and unwelcome. It’s a feeling we are used to.
