Black Theatre Breakthrough

Two new productions take Black Theatre into the mainstream

For some time it has been a common complaint among theatre fans that the West End is in desperate need of an injection of fresh blood. London’s art scene is among the most joyously multi-cultural in the world, yet theatre land seems to be dominated by haughty white suburbanites who quaff champagne at press nights and coo and creep to each other in a bubble of middle-class insipidity. Now the debut of two black productions in London’s West End has got us all excited.

When 'Elmina’s Kitchen' opened at the Garrick (an old empirical Victorian theatre) it was the first time a contemporary British-born black writer has ever had a play in the West End. Similarly, 'The Big Life' (transferred from the Stratford Royal) has been hyped as the West End’s first black British musical to be set in a black London community.

I went along to these plays prepared to be disappointed – under the circumstances the glowing reviews each received might not have been entirely deserved. Thankfully, there is no special pleading. Both plays are top notch and have earned their right to grace the West End.

'Elmina’s Kitchen' (written by Kwame Kwei Armah - a veritable ex-casualty screen god) is a riotous but deadly serious examination of gun culture on Hackney’s infamous ‘Murder Mile’. Among a whole load of witty wisecracks, the main message is still driven home with gallant articulacy - generations will be lost to guns, drugs and violence unless society changes.

'The Big Life' is a ska musical: an all-singing, toe-tapping extravaganza with so much razzle-dazzle I felt like shaking my tush in the aisle. Chronicling the experiences of Caribbean immigrants arriving in London in 1950, it fuses social history with a giddy musical cocktail that embraces the blues, calypso, reggae and soul.

On the whole, theatre-going folk in the West End are of the white, middle-class type. The Arts Council has shown admirable determination that the West End will not remain all white on the night. Threats to cut the funding of hundreds of theatres unless they showcase ethnic plays have seen theatres brand the council 'Stalinist', but they are just setting up a level playing field. Maybe it is social engineering, but for black plays to survive in the West End, they need first to be common place, and second to entice mixed audiences.

Audiences for the two new black productions have been pretty mixed so far, with 'Elmina's Kitchen' attracting big crowds by word of mouth. In order for black theatre to really take off in the West End though we need to be sure of good productions, and low prices. At least in this, black theatre faces exactly the same obstacles as more traditional shows.

Bringing the plays to the West End is unquestionably a gamble. In the next weeks and months their commercial strength will be tested. Should they both fail, it would be a big setback for unsubsidised black theatre... but there’s no reason to think they will. The audiences of the West End are as cosmopolitan as any in the world, and I for one would rate 'Elmina’s Kitchen' up there with the best of the West End’s serious dramas.

Satirical, sassy and effervescent, here's hoping that, like the immigrants to whose courage 'The Big Life' pays such splendid tribute, black theatre has found a lasting West End home.

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Channel 4 has launched a reality show aiming to find the next Andrew Lloyd-Webber. 'The Play’s The Thing' will select writers based upon the strength of their projects and skills, then shepherd their scripts from pre-production to the West End. Any show that lays bare the bizarre behaviour of luvvies behind closed doors is sure to be gripping.

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