Black audience nights to shield West End play from ‘White Gaze’
‘Black Out nights’, pioneered in New York, are becoming increasingly popular in the Western theatre world.
The producers of a play in the West End of London have confirmed at least two showings will effectively ban white people from the audience.
The controversial Slave Play, which is due to star the Game of Thrones actor Kit Harington, is due to have two “Black Out” nights where only black-identifying audience members are “welcomed”. The producers said it was so they could “experience and discuss an event ... free from the white gaze”.
Black Out nights have become increasingly popular in the British theatre world, with publicly funded companies including Lyric Hammersmith, Theatre Royal Stratford East and the Almeida Theatre all having hosted them.
The concept was pioneered in New York for the original 2019 production of Slave Play in an effort to raise the diversity of theatre audiences who have historically been overwhelmingly white.
Not all plays telling “black stories” by black playwrights have held them, however, with the acclaimed For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy not hosting any on its West End transfer.
Jeremy O Harris, the writer of Slave Play, said this week that the production was “one of the rare plays by a black author that has made its way to the West End ... I hope that with this production even more work by writers of colour will find support on our largest commercial stages”.
The producers of the play, which is due to run at Noel Coward Theatre from late June until September, said: “Black Out nights are [for] the purposeful creation of an environment in which an all-black-identifying audience can experience and discuss an event in the performing arts, film, athletic, and cultural spaces - free from the white gaze.” They said they were “excited to carry on this work in the West End for the first time”.
Slave Play, which got 12 Tony nominations in the United States, revolves around three interracial couples role-playing while on a cotton plantation.
Harris told the BBC this week that he was “excited” to introduce Black Out shows to the West End. “In most places in the West, poor people and black people have been told that they do not belong inside the theatre,” he said.
“For me, as someone who wants and yearns for black and brown people to be in the theatre, who comes from a working-class environment, who wants people who do not make six figures to feel like theatre is a place for them, it is a necessity to radically invite them in with initiatives that say, ‘You’re invited. Specifically you.’ ”
Harris added that there was a “litany of places in our country that are generally only inhabited by white people”.
Conservative MPs have previously criticised the practice, with Damian Green, a member of the culture select committee, saying last year: “Putting on a public show and then asking people of a certain ethnicity not to come is misguided and a bit sinister.”
His committee colleague Giles Watling described the concept as a “big mistake”, saying: “Everyone, no matter their sex, race or colour, should be able to access all theatre, otherwise we risk putting people into echo chambers, hearing only one side of any debate.”
Dramatic changes
Trigger warnings: Verbal or written notices given to audiences before a production begins have become common in recent years. Topics covered include racism or any perceived discrimination, self-harm, violence or bad language, and they have been announced before productions including The Sound of Music and Macbeth.
Immersive theatre: Although performers breaking the fourth wall has always been a feature of theatre, modern productions have really placed the audience at the heart of the performance.
Embracing technology: From virtual reality and augmented reality to mixed reality, many directors are using different techniques in their productions to enhance the audience experience.
The Times
