A controversial theatre production about race, identity and sexuality in 21st century America will put on two nights for black audiences to watch the play “free from the white gaze”. The Mail has more.
Slave Play, starring Kit Harington who is best known for his role as Jon Snow in the HBO series Game of Thrones, is coming to the Noël Coward theatre in London’s West End from June 29th to September 21st.
But on the evenings of July 17th and September 17th, the theatre will be open to an “all-Black identifying audience”.
One senior Tory MP, who did not want to be named, raised questions over the decision to bar white people from the show, telling MailOnline: “I understand the subject matter of the show may have particular resonance for some but would simply question the legality of this?
“In other circles it would be illegal and racial discrimination. I don’t understand why this isn’t.”
But playwright Jeremy O Harris told BBC Sounds he was “so excited” to put on nights in the West End where tickets were only sold to people who identified as black. He said “it is a necessity to radically invite them in with initiatives that say ‘you’re invited’. Specifically you”.
Slave Play, written by Jeremy O Harris, was a huge hit when it debuted in 2019 but it was also controversial, with a petition to have it cancelled.
According to the Guardian, some argued the play – surrounding three interracial couples attempting to reinvigorate their relationships while role-playing being on a plantation – made light of chattel slavery and left at least one audience member “offended and traumatised”.
Despite the criticism, Slave Play received 12 Tony nominations in 2021.
Playwright O Harris told BBC Sounds yesterday he was “so excited” to put on nights in the West End where tickets were only sold to people who identified as black. …
Asked if it didn’t make him uncomfortable that in turn it was telling white people they weren’t allowed in the space, he responded: “There are a litany of places in our country that are generally only inhabited by white people, and nobody is questioning that, and nobody is saying that by inviting black audiences here you are uninvited.
“The idea of a Black Out night is to say this is a night that we are specifically inviting black people to fill up the space, to feel safe with a lot of other black people in a place where they often do not feel safe.”
Amy Gallagher, the Mayoral candidate for London’s Social Democratic Party, slammed the plans as “racist”:.
This is definitely racist. Excluding anyone on the basis of skin colour in this way is racist.
They seem to be reverting to a critical race theory definition of racism whereby, according to Ibram X. Kendi, we need present discrimination, against white people, to make up for past discrimination.
They say they want to be free from the “white gaze” which, of course, means white people, but they will not go as far to say white people as it would be illegal.
This is an extremely simplistic and racist approach generally. We have a large Asian and mixed-race population. Would they be encouraged or discouraged to attend?
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