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?
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
How do you ‘identify’ as black?
You grumble about white people. As the vast majority in this country are still white we can all ‘identify’ as black and pop along. Personally, I’ve chosen to nail my nether regions to a termite infested tree stump for some lighter relief. Each to their own I suppose.
Are spouses who do not “identify as black” allowed in?
Is Meghan Markle black enough to “identify as black”?
Meghan Markle is black enough to be identified as black hole.
It’s an interesting one. I would guess Markle is what, at most 1/16th black. Ross Barkley, the Luton footballer, was likened to a gorilla by Kelvin Mckenzie, it was certainly news to McKenzie, his readers, & I think Barkley! when someone discovered he had a black great father. Yet McKenzie got keel hauled.
When is it no longer permissable to play the race card? When you’re 15/16ths white. 31/32nds white or 63/64ths white. I think we should be told.
I’m not suggesting Barkley claimed anything himself but others were faux offended on his behalf.
I think that’s a pointless question as the only answer is “It’s permissible when you get away with it.” I would never have thought of her as black but she got away with it an hence, it was permissible.
The next Big Idea will be to have segregated coaches in the London Underground so that different “communities” can “feel safe”. Why does Alabama repeatedly spring to mind this week?
Segregated coaches? Will the blacks get the front seats or be relegated to their historical seats at the rear.?
You wouldn’t want them closer to the front and thus, more likely to be injured in a frontal crash, would you?
I seem to remember a gentleman back in ’68 warning us that, “the black man will have the whip hand …” and being condemned by all and sundry.
“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….”
So: because some areas of a (still) predominantly white country in a melanin-challenging northern latitude are inhabited (note the diversionary manipulation of language) by white people – perhaps for no other reason than their ancestors might have lived here for centuries – that justifies avoidance of the ‘white gaze’ to ‘feel safe’, a suspiciously vague term the playwright does not define? Curious logic there, mate. I wonder how he would feel if the situation was reversed in a majority African state…oh wait, didn’t South Africa do that once….?
Pure unadulterated racism!
“it is a necessity to radically invite them in with initiatives that say ‘you’re invited’. Specifically you”.
The very description of racism right there,
Not inviting everyone because of skin colour!
Typically, the cowardly Tory M P who questioned the legality of this chose not to be named? All we can know with certainty is that it wasn’t Lee Andersen.
I wish they’d announce they’re going to make a new film biography of Martin Luther King and that Brad Pitt is going to be playing him.
Just a ruse to gauge the public reaction. OMG, that’d be some epic entertainment all on it’s own! Can you imagine the outcry?! 
What it would do though is shine a light on the double standards of the woketards and ‘anti-racists’ wouldn’t it? Not to mention the copious amount of rewriting history so that they can just insert black actors everywhere in place of white historical figures. Or does “diversity” only work one way?
I cannot wait to hear your rant on the Rochdale By election if the DS puts an article up about it.
Simple, I’m going to identify as black!
And them tell them to stick their racist play where the sun don’t shine!
And if I was Kit Harrington, I’ve have nothing to do with it on those two nights!
They’re happy with you going through the motions as a public show of compliance with their agenda is all that’s needed to prevent people from uniting against it.
Surely the audience would be looking at the actors on stage, not each other.
Best for people who identify as black not to visit the National Portrait Gallery in case the eyes of the white subjects follow them around and their gaze lands on them. Putting a whole new meaning on the phrase, every eye in the room was on him.
Churchill (don’t walk past his statue – it’s the eyes, the eyes!) once spoke of a bodyguard of lies. Now any formula of words will do adequate service.
“In other circles it would be illegal and racial discrimination. I don’t understand why this isn’t.”
This is apparently from a senior Tory MP. How can he not have noticed that there is an open conspiracy to destroy white European civilisation?
I’m reminded of this: https://www.takimag.com/article/the_talk_nonblack_version_john_derbyshire/
Furthermore tof, this Conservative mp has clearly revealed a strong yellow streak. The coward hasn’t publicly put his name to his comments. This stunt does nothing for social cohesion and the Harris geezer should now be written off as a bigoted racist.
Totally agree on all counts.
It’s about normalising hatred of white people.
It’s also very patronising – I am far from convinced that there are lots of black theatregoers clamouring for black-only nights, and if I were black I would feel I was being made to look like a snowflake who can’t cope with being around white people. Actually on second thoughts in the unlikely event that this play is any good I might want to have whites excluded as they’d be a bunch of virtue-signalling, patronising tossers.
I roller skate – a pastime where black people are over-represented in terms of attendance and talent. Perhaps I should suggest a whites-only night to the rink operators, so that less talented whiteys can skate far away from the gaze of black people.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68433675.amp
Very sad news that Dave Myers, one half of the Hairy Bikers has died of cancer.
RIP Sir.
Why downticks to this news guys, come on!
Gutted to hear that as I used to really like watching their shows. They were so entertaining and made a great team, travelling all over the place, being funny without trying and cooking delish food. They came across as real genuine friends and all-round canny blokes. I do have a bit of bias because they’re from the N.East region too but they were a really unique duo, in my opinion. I also used to like the Two Fat Ladies years ago ( didn’t one of them die too? ), who also coincidentally were fond of motorbikes, but the Hairy Bikers were my faves.
What shocking irony that the same Ethnic Africans and their Communist Enablers who whined about Apartheid and Segregation, are now demanding it for themselves.
Fine, if they want Apartheid and Segregation, let them have it.
They do want both because they serve no purpose without it. Preaching race hate to a non-segregated society makes little sense. In order to daemonize the other, he must first become (usually not encountered) the other and not some other guy from the local neighbourhood.
This obviously having been ripped from the post-feminists who invented the male gaze (and likely, ultimativey ripped from Jean-Paul Satre, hell is the others, literal translation of the German Die Hölle, das sind die anderen as I know neither the French original nor the official English translation). It’s also obviously illegal as requiring people someone judges to be white to openly declare against that is racial discrimination, no matter how weasel-worded.
This American ‘playwright¹’ should be unceremoniously shown the door. We don’t want your RaHoWa here, end of.
¹ Does reinventing celebrity big brother/ I’m a celebrity as stage production qualify as play?
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.
Why does this American talk about stuff other Americans do in America (our, ie, his country) in order to justify him breaking UK law in England?
I am half black half white, how do I quantify the whiteness of my gaze?
You’ll probably need to wear an eye patch.
Eye patches are a symbol of white colonial oppression. An attempt by the white oppressors to deny the black gaze.
My cousin is half white and half Antelope. ——–Can we stop with the absurdity? No probably not
The white man’s gaze is harsh and discerning and sometimes limited but I would rather he examined my black ass than just ignored me.
You might need to elaborate.
This seems like incitement to racial hatred. Suggest police involvement.
Imagine the response if someone proposed a white night, free from the black gaze.
But what about all the other ‘gazes’ of different colours? Are Chinese Asian or Indian Asian black or white gaze or some other colour, and how would this theatre describe Chinese gaze? Then what about the Inuit/Eskimo as they must be white gaze?
Blimey, this race thing is complicated!
But diversity only works in one direction ——-Less white people.
Can an Al Jolson lookalike regional runner up attend?
Here is a documentary about Hans Eisler who was a famous Communist composer. The music @10:35 is tuneful but predictably Marxist and a surprising modern rendition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz9RLrwXldg&t=3198s
When black people are content for George Clooney to play Nelson Mandela in a film we will finally be able to say the RACE CARD has been ditched. ——-Don’t hold your breath.