Theatre’s ‘black-only’ nights don’t play well with me

Playwright Jeremy O. harris is insisting on two nights for audience members who identify as black when his play opens in June.

to ‘avoid the white gaze’, Slave Play — starring Kit harington — will have two ‘black only’ performances during its short run at the Noel Coward theatre in london’s west End.

harris says white audiences are too quiet and behave in a different way to black audiences — clearly he has never been to a

Christmas panto in glasgow. in an interview, he also claimed British tV is racist: ‘i’ve felt the wild erasure of black and brown bodies more than in america — it’s like “wait, so there’s literally not even a black extra”,’ he told Vogue in 2022.

we all know that is demonstrably untrue, palpable nonsense. what was he watching? a 1963 episode of Dixon Of Dock green?

Can i just say that i go to the theatre all the time, up and down the country, both for work and for pleasure. the audiences are always, i would venture, about 95 per cent white.

indeed, there are often more black people on stage than in the stalls, in part because of rainbow casting and diversity quotas insisted upon by the arts Council, who can withdraw funding if those quotas are not met.

this is all done in the name of diversity and for good reasons, not bad.

But if it is meant to encourage black people to visit the theatre then it has failed. it seems ridiculous — and dangerous — that after all the tears shed and blood spilled over freedom from segregation that a black playwright is voluntarily bringing it back.

P.S. when i went to see r&B singer Jill Scott (fabulous) at the Eventim apollo in london last year, the audience was 99 per cent black.

which proves absolutely nothing except this — we are all free to make a choice and to buy a ticket. Or not.