- By Leisha Chi-Santorelli
- BBC News Culture
February 29, 2024, 17:03 GMT
Updated 1 hour ago
Image source: Getty Images
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Slave Play received twelve nominations at the 74th Tony Awards, breaking Angels' previous record in America
A West End production of Slave Play, which features some shows only for black audiences, has been criticized by Downing Street as “wrong and divisive”.
The Noel Coward Theater will host two “Black Out” performances exclusively for “all-black audiences.”
The controversial play is set on a plantation in the ancient American South and explores “race, identity and sexuality.”
Written by US actor and playwright Jeremy O Harris, the play received more Tony nominations than any other play.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's official spokesman said media reports that some screenings were “free from the white gaze” were “concerning” and No 10 was seeking further information.
“The Prime Minister is a huge supporter of the arts and believes the arts should be inclusive and open to all, particularly where these arts venues receive public funding,” the spokesman said.
“Restricting audiences based on race would be wrong and divisive.”
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The artwork for the West End production of Slave Play at the Noel Coward Theatre
Slave Play's producers told BBC News that “the intention is to celebrate the play with as wide an audience as possible.”
“We want to improve access to theater for everyone.
“The Broadway production was designed for black-out nights and we are carefully considering how to incorporate this endeavor into two performances of our 13-week run.”
“We will release more details soon. To be clear: no one will be prevented or excluded from attending a Slave Play performance.”
Image source: Getty Images
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Jeremy O Harris at the opening of Slave Play 2022 in Los Angeles, which has attracted both acclaim and controversy over its subject matter and production choices
“The idea of a black out night is to say: This is a night where we specifically invite black people to fill the space and feel safe with lots of other black people in a place where they feel often don’t feel safe.”
“I think one of the things we need to remember is that people need to be radically invited into a space to know that they belong there. In most places in the West, poor people and black people were told that they didn't belong inside the theater.
“In America, Jim Crow existed to literally tell them that they couldn’t sit in the same theater as white people.
“As someone who wants and longs for black and brown people to be in the theater, who comes from a working class background and therefore wants people who don't make more than six figures a year to feel like that Theater is a place for them, it is necessary to radically invite them with initiatives that say: “You are invited. Especially you.”
On Thursday, Harris also defended the blackout decision on social media after she was criticized by some users on X, formerly Twitter, for alleged “racist attitudes toward white people.”
“I don’t have to imagine that when my grandparents were alive the roles were reversed and WORSE,” he wrote on X.
“I’m not even saying ONLY BLACK PEOPLE, I’m saying I invite black people first! They can bring their white friends or lovers if they want. There is no color bar. But recently there’s one in the UK!”
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The 34-year-old said he does not “take it lightly that this play is one of the rare plays by a black author to have found its way to the West End”.
“I am incredibly grateful for the paths recently paved by the countless black British writers who have laid the foundation for black writers and audiences in the West End, such as Arinzé Kene, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Tyrell Williams, Ryan Calais Cameron and Natasha Gordon.”
“I hope that with this production even more works by authors of color will find support on our biggest commercial stages.”
In the BBC interview with World at One presenter Sarah Montague, he acknowledged the controversy that Slave Play has caused, including petitions not to show it.
“I think all of these things are really beautiful and necessary,” he told the BBC. “Hard questions should provoke vociferous responses, both of celebration and of censorship, right?”
Asked whether he thinks the reaction to the play will be different in the UK than in the US, particularly around issues of race, Harris replies that he is “not sure”.
“There is a very obvious reason why British audiences or British theater makers often feel that racial discourse is outsourced to American writers,” he told the BBC after a pause.
“The race plays that take place here or that focus on race are often written by black writers. I know that a lot of black British writers I’m friends with are somehow frustrated and alienated by this.”
“And so I hope that this will be an invitation for more Black British plays to come to these conversations.”
Image source: Noel Coward Theater
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The West End cast of Slave Play includes Banana star Fisayo Akinade and Denzel Washington's daughter Olivia Washington
Slave Play received 12 nominations at the 74th Tony Awards, breaking the record previously set by the revival of Angels in America. It brought home no wins.
Game of Thrones star Kit Harrington and Denzel Washington's daughter Olivia Washington are part of the ensemble.
In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, Harris criticized commercial theater's reliance on celebrity casting because it leads people to treat the theater “like a Disney World attraction where the play is the backdrop to the entertainment.” “To see your favorite star in front of you”.
However, Harris believes Harrington will not be a “distraction” as he is not a main character in the play and was impressed with his acting.
“It’s far too expensive,” he told the BBC.
I didn't see my first Broadway play until a year before my play went to Broadway. And I could only see it because I went to Yale and someone else bought my ticket for me. But I'm not someone who ever saw a play as a child. That’s why I love British theater so much, because I knew plays from reading.”
Harris' producers have apparently reserved over 200 tickets a week, starting at £1, with some seats costing £20.
The UK premiere of Slave Play is scheduled for June 29th. It runs until September 21st. The two planned black-out nights are July 17th and September 17th.