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Conclusion: In the Spirit of Sankofa

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Black British Women's Theatre

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Abstract

This concluding chapter is guided by the Akan proverb ‘sankofa’. Looking back over the preceding chapters, it traces a history of black British women’s theatre through the 1980s and 1990s, before turning its attention to the twenty-first century, where it celebrates the increased publication and staging of non-naturalistic drama.

The central section focuses on popular contemporary playwright debbie tucker green, mapping her relationship with the theatre and publishing industries, the press, the academy, and the archive. It reports on the archival acquisition of two of her earliest, unpublished playscripts, She Three (1997) and Two Women (2000), and reflects on the attendant issues of representation and access.

Finally, the conclusion looks forward, signposting possibilities for further study and stressing the need to nurture the archive.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The term ‘Sankofa’ gave its name to a filmmaking collective inaugurated in 1983, consisting of Isaac Julien, Martina Attille, Maureen Blackwood, Nadine Marsh-Edwards, and Robert Crusz. It also titles a section in R. Victoria Arana’s edited collection ‘Black’ British Aesthetics Today (2007). More recently, the symbol featured in the television series Taboo (BBC1, 2017).

  2. 2.

    See Michael Pearce (2017) on the ways in which black British theatre is infused with influences that originate beyond the boundaries of the nation.

  3. 3.

    Recent Artistic Directors of the Royal Court include Max Stafford-Clark (in post 1979–1993), Stephen Daldry (1993–1998), Ian Rickson (1998–2006), Dominic Cooke (2007–2013), and Vicky Featherstone (2013 to present). Paines Plough was formed in 1974.

  4. 4.

    The relatively large number of scholarly studies of debbie tucker green include Abram (2014), Fragkou (2013), Goddard (2007, 2009), Osborne (2007, 2014), Pearce (2017) and Adiseshiah and Bolton eds. (2020).

  5. 5.

    tucker green directed the productions of truth and reconciliation (Royal Court, 2011), nut (National Theatre, 2013), hang (Royal Court, 2015), a profoundly affectionate , passionate devotion to someone (-noun) (Royal Court, 2017), and ear for eye (Royal Court, 2018), as well as the film Second Coming (2015) and the 2011 Hillbilly/Film4 adaptation of her play, random .

  6. 6.

    Several articles explore the importance of television plays to black British writers, including Shaw (2017) and Liarou (2012).

  7. 7.

    Box of Broadcasts is available at https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand.

  8. 8.

    Sacha Wares also directed generations , a sideways glance at the horrors of humanitarian crises in Africa. It was first produced at the National Theatre on 30 June 2005 as part of a series of plays commissioned in relation to the 2005 inter-governmental ‘G8’ summit. It then appeared at the Young Vic studio in March 2007.

  9. 9.

    For the National Theatre Archive holdings on nut, search its online catalogue: http://catalogue.nationaltheatre.org.uk/.

  10. 10.

    There are various accounts of tucker green’s Alfred Fagon Award nominations. In an early interview, the playwright reported that she submitted She Three (Gardner 2005), and this is confirmed by archival research (VAM THM/372/2/1/40). Deirdre Osborne reports that Two Women was shortlisted (Osborne 2010, p. 37), while Lynette Goddard records the same for dirty butterfly (Goddard 2005, p. 377). In 2015, hang was nominated for the Alfred Fagon Audience Award—a new category in which winners are decided by a public vote.

  11. 11.

    The Royal Court hosted the Alfred Fagon awards between 1997 and 2007. The theatre has proven a vital sponsor of a number of black British women playwrights, giving a first production to Bernardine Evaristo (Moving Through , 1982) and Patricia Hilaire (Just Another Day , 1982) of Theatre of Black Women, and producing work by Winsome Pinnock (A Rock in Water, 1989; A Hero’s Welcome, 1989; Talking in Tongues, 1991; Mules, 1996) and Bola Agbaje, a graduate of its Young Writers Programme (Gone Too Far !, 2008; Off the Endz , 2010). The theatre also produced plays by African American playwright Adrienne Kennedy in the 1960s, including her choreopoetic tribute to Malcolm X, Sun (Pearce 2017, p. 41).

  12. 12.

    In 2013 administration of the Alfred Fagon Awards passed to Tiata Fahodzi, a company founded in 1997 by British Nigerian actor and director Femi Elufowoju Jr.

  13. 13.

    For its naming and claiming of a London location, tucker green’s Stratford might be compared with Mustapha Matura’s play Bakerloo Line (1972, Almost Free Theatre), which takes a London party as its setting, and may also be seen in the tradition of Sam Selvon’s 1956 novel The Lonely Londoners , where migrant characters occupy and at times rename the city.

  14. 14.

    Currently enshrined within UK copyright law is a specific exception that allows quotation from any work that has already been made available to the public, including through performance, provided the amount used is reasonable and appropriate (section 30 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988). This would seem to permit quotation of Two Women, since it was performed at Soho Theatre in October 2000. Additionally, it is lawful to critique and review any text without quotation of that text: copyright law pertains specifically to the copying of a part or the whole of a work.

  15. 15.

    See www.blackplaysarchive.org.uk.

  16. 16.

    Work to decolonise Higher Education Institutions and their curricula have traversed the University of Cambridge (www.flygirlsofcambridge.com/2017/06/14/decolonising-the-english-faculty-an-open-letter/), the University of Oxford (www.rmfoxford.wordpress.com/), and University College London (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dscx4h2l-Pk), among others.

  17. 17.

    According to documentation on Black Mime Theatre contained within the Arts Council of Great Britain records, Deborah Yhip had served as Assistant Trainee Director on Black Mime Theatre Ensemble’s production Heart, from July to October 1992 (Anon. n.d.).

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  1. University of Reading, Reading, UK

    Nicola Abram

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Abram, N. (2020). Conclusion: In the Spirit of Sankofa. In: Black British Women's Theatre. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51459-4_7

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