No 10 warns over black-only play that public-funded art is for all

A TAXPAYER-FUNDED theatre has hosted a play for an all-black audience,

The Telegraph can disclose, as Downing Street said arts funded by the public should be open to all.

The concept of “black out” shows specifically for all-black audiences was trialled by US writer Jeremy O Harris during the Broadway run of Slave Play, and the idea will be transferred to the West End with the show in the summer, it emerged this week.

But a spokesman for the Prime Minister described plans for the West End venues to host such performances – which claim to protect “black-identifying” ticket holders from the “white gaze” – as “divisive”.

No 10 has also raised concerns on behalf of taxpayers, after The Telegraph discovered a London theatre receiving an annual £150,000 in public funding via the Arts Council staged its own show for an “all-black audience”.

The partly subsidised Yard Theatre staged a new play called Samuel Takes a Break in a show “specifically for black audiences” on Feb 28.

The show came amid criticism of plans for Harris’s Tony Award-nominated Slave Play to offer two performances at the Noël Coward Theatre in the West End for all-black spectators.

A spokesman for Mr Sunak warned that “restricting audiences on the basis of race would be wrong and divisive”, adding that “the arts should be inclusive and open to everyone, particularly where those arts venues are in receipt of public funding”.

No 10 has made clear that taxpayers will have an expectation that the art they fund will be open to all.

A Tory source said that “this kind of racial segregation has no place in modern Britain”, adding that “if there were ‘white-only’ performances, the Left would rightly be up in arms”.

The Yard Theatre’s “black out” event aimed to promote Samuel Takes a Break, which is about a tour guide at a slave fortress in Ghana, written by Rhianna Ilube.

The event was described as “an evening programmed for an all-black audience to collectively engage with the show”, and booking guidance confirmed that it was “a performance programmed specifically for black audiences”.

The theatre receives £150,000 annually from the taxpayer-funded Arts Council, accounting for about 10 per cent of its income, and has also benefited from a £250,000 Covid Cultural Recovery Fund grant.

The council insists that its associated organisations ensure diversity and accessibility.

Nickie Aiken, the Tory MP for Cities of London and Westminster, said: “When we face increased race tensions in this country the last thing our theatres should be doing is promoting segregation.

“The arts should be a place where people from all backgrounds come together to watch plays, particularly those which highlight powerful and difficult subjects.”

The idea of a black-only performance has been tried before in London, when white people were urged not to attend a Theatre Royal Stratford East performance of the racial satire Tambo &

Bones.

The Yard Theatre has been contacted for comment.

The producers of Slave Play said their “intent is to celebrate the play with the widest possible audience”.