THE OBERON BOOK OF
MONOLOGUES FOR BLACK ACTORS:
CLASSICAL AND CONTEMPORARY SPEECHES
FROM BLACK BRITISH PLAYS:
MONOLOGUES FOR MEN – Volume 1
THE OBERON BOOK OF
MONOLOGUES FOR BLACK ACTORS:
CLASSICAL AND CONTEMPORARY
SPEECHES FROM BLACK BRITISH PLAYS:
MONOLOGUES FOR MEN – Volume 1
Selected and Edited by Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway
Foreword by Kwame Kwei-Armah
First published in 2013 by Oberon Books Ltd in association with Theatre
Royal Stratford East
521 Caledonian Road, London N7 9RH
Tel: 020 7607 3637 / Fax: 020 7607 3629
e-mail: [email protected]
www.oberonbooks.com
Compilation copyright © Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway 2013
Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway is hereby identified as editor of this compilation in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The editor has asserted her moral rights.
The contributors are hereby identified as authors of their contributions in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The authors have asserted their moral rights.
All rights whatsoever in these extracts are strictly reserved and application for performance, other than in an audition context, should be made before commencement of rehearsal to the authors’ agents. No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained, and no alterations may be made in the title or the text of the play without the author’s prior written consent.
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
PB ISBN: 978-1-78319-057-7
EPUB ISBN: 978-1-78319-556-5
Cover photograph by James Illman featuring Miles Mitchell
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY.
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We gratefully acknowledge financial assistance from the Arts Council England and The National Lottery,
The Authors’ Foundation and
Theatre Royal Stratford East.
Many thanks to Central School of Speech and Drama who provided the space to shoot the photograph for the front cover and Miles Mitchell who appears in it.
FOREWORD
I often find myself misquoting LP Harley’s famous saying ‘The past is like a foreign land, they do things differently there’. Why I replace the words ‘the past’ with history I do not know. It doesn’t improve the quote any. Maybe it is because in my mind the word ‘history’ sounds grander? Or maybe it is just that I love the word history because so much of what we stand upon as individuals, as a culture, isn’t just predicated on what happened in the ‘past’ but upon whose ‘Story’– has been recorded. Whose voice has been enshrined?
The world I grew up in as an actor was a far cry from than that of the generation working before the 1980s uprising, which made our country sit up and examine the genesis of that rage. The resulting flowering of that generations voice and its theatrical manifestations meant, selfishly, that there was work for us as young black actors. But often that work, no matter its quality, was confined to the fate of the single production, witnessed only by those that had the pleasure to behold its articulations. Very few were ever remounted. Even fewer were published, leaving future generations nothing that they could review and learn from, or even conceive that they are standing upon shoulders.
It was amid the identification of this problem, of trying to articulate a great yearning, that I met the editor of this anthology Simeilia Hodge Dallaway. With the help of the National Theatre, and the sustained theatre initiative, I decided that history would begin today. Sim came on as my project manager and we uncovered upwards of four hundred plays that had been produced in the UK over the last eighty-odd years. Sim encouraged people to look in their attics, their cellars, their aunties and uncles’ suitcases under beds older than she was to find missing pages, whole manuscripts, programme notes, old interviews, photographs and of course the few published plays that resided in the archives or bookshelves of the fortunate.
As she read through all of these works, seeing links between playwrights and themes that few have had the good fortune of being able to detect, you could see the maxim ‘we are here to be of service to and through our art form’ bubbling in her mind. How to use these new insights not just for playwrights but for all artists became her focus.
It was this curiosity, this impulse to serve I wager, that created this book of monologues primarily for Black British actors but generally for all. With monologues from Barry Reckord to Michael Abbensetts – From Michael Mcmillian to ’Biyi Bandele-Thomas, from Oladipo Agboluaje to Michael Bhim, the diversity of subjects and themes alone are enough to make this book stand out. But it is the voices, the stories that these monologues explore, the beauty, the ugliness, the pain of the twentieth-century Black British experience mixed with the triumphs and horrors of the twenty-first that will make this collection sit in the annals of OUR history. Or as Ziggy Marley sang ’Istory.
Never again will a young actor trying to get into drama school only have three or four playwrights from which to choose from that reflect his or her primary cultural background. Never again will that playwright, looking for that instant hit from a multiplicity of theatrical voices have to Google and only find African American ones.
Yes, history is today. And I am simply overjoyed that right now, certainly for those of us who exist in this wild, challenging but ultimately fulfilling world they called theatre, can say the past truly is a foreign land.
Kwame Kwei-Armah
INTRODUCTION
How many Black British plays can you name?
I posed this question to actors, students, and teachers and saw the same embarrassed look on their faces as they struggled to name more than five plays. Their faces changed to utter dismay when I told them that after setting up and managing the Black British Play Archive at the Royal National Theatre, I had rediscovered over 400 plays written by Black British playwrights which had been professionally performed on stage in Britain. This was the very question that inspired me to create the first collection of monologue books for Black British actors and practitioners.
Before working on the Black British play archive, admittedly, I simply lacked any knowledge of the Black British play canon, and instead I sought validation from the work of Black American writers, namely Lorraine Hansberry and Ntozake Shange. I still remember receiving my first black play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange, given to me by Rebecca Prichard after I performed in her play Fairgame produced by the Royal Court Theatre which was staged at the Duke of York’s Theatre, St Martins Lane. There was an overwhelming feeling of validation when reading this play. It reflected parts of my culture, language, song, history. Needles
s to say For Colored Girls was the first play I directed at university. I feel strongly that it is imperative for people of colour to have an awareness of work which exists and reflects their history.
After graduating from Roehampton University in 2004, I gained the opportunity to assist the direction of the production Oxford Street by Black British playwright Levi David Addai at the Royal Court Theatre (2008). I later discovered the significance of working at the Royal Court Theatre, as it was the first theatre venue in London to stage and offer dramaturgical support to new plays written by Black British playwrights.
The birth of Black British theatre companies happened in the 1970s and 1980s, created by leading black actors, directors and writers who desperately wanted to provide a wider platform for their peers, other upcoming black artists and themselves. Examples of such companies include, Black Theatre Co-operative (now Nitro) co-founded in 1979 by Trinidadian playwright Mustapha Matura and British director Charlie Hanson. Carib Theatre was formed in 1983 founded by Jamaican-born actor, director and producer Anton Phillips. Temba, formed in 1972, was co-founded by actor Oscar James and Alton Kumalo. Talawa Theatre Company was founded in 1985 by Yvonne Brewster, Mona Hammond, Carmen Monroe and Inigo Espejel. Foco Novo Theatre Company was founded in 1971 by British director Roland Rees, American playwright Bernard Pomerance, and British producer David Aukinand. Black Mime Theatre was founded in 1987 by David Boxer and Sarah Cahn, to name but a few.
The social change in the theatre landscape presented an abundance of new plays from black Caribbean and African writers. An exciting time for Black British work. Sadly, many of these companies saw closure due to lack of funding; even now black theatre companies still struggle to produce the amount of work desired. Moreover plays by Black British playwrights failed to have more than one stage production of their work.
In 2010, I was head-hunted by Kwame Kwei-Armah OBE to manage his Black British Play Archive project at the Royal National Theatre. In the two years I spent setting up and managing the Black British Play Archive, I was able to re-discover and read a significant number of plays in the region of around 400 plays from the 1930s to 2012. I was also fortunate to work with many of the original founders ‘the Grandfathers and Grandmothers’ of Black British theatre companies and original cast members for the shows, which formed the basis of my education of Black British play history. Directing plays with some of the original cast members who freely shared anecdotes with the younger members in the cast was an invaluable experience.
This project was more than just a project: it validated my existence in a world that I didn’t think black people really existed in. There were many times that I would read or direct a Black British play and find myself laughing hysterically, crying or simply whole-heartedly agreeing with the statements made in the play. For the first time I was able to read plays which I had an emotional connection to. I could identify with the characters and their stories. I learnt more about our Black British history, cultural heritage and black iconic figures like Toussaint L’Overture, Maurice Bishop and Muhammad Ali.
I loved reading the earlier plays, which I refer to as ‘classic’ plays from writers like Derek Walcott, Barry Reckord, Errol John, Alfred Fagon, and Jackie Kay as these were the writers that helped pave the way for a new generation of writers. When asked to suggest a classical play for the Sustained Theatre ‘Exploring the Canon’ event at Arcola Theatre, for me it was quite simple. I had just finished reading Errol John’s play, Moon on a Rainbow Shawl and took the pleasure of directing the play with Martina Laird, Shyko Amos with actors from Acting Touring Company. I was even more delighted that after bringing this play to the Royal National Theatre’s attention the play was rightfully given another stage production on the National Theatre’s Cottlesloe stage in 2012.
Inspired by both classical and modern plays, I decided that I wanted to create a book which would provide readers with an insight into the breadth of work featured in the Black British play canon. This collection of monologues is orchestrated to capture the diversity of characters, themes, language and styles that have been used by Black British playwrights to tell the stories of Black British experiences.
This book aims to celebrate writers who have paved the way for the next generation and those who have taken the baton and continue to produce exceptional and groundbreaking work.
For the purpose of this book, I have only included plays which have been published to encourage readers to invest in the full-length version of the plays. I hope that actors will enjoy working on these speeches, using them to help strengthen their craft, and by doing so, help to ensure these plays are always remembered.
Many people have asked me about my motivation for writing this book; my response would be: I guess it’s hard to look for something when you don’t quite know what you’re looking for?
Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway
This book is dedicated to my Ma Charmaine Miller
and big sis Naomi Dallaway.
CONTENTS
CLASSICAL MONOLOGUES
EPHRAIM
Moon on a Rainbow Shawl (Errol John)
CRAGGE
Skyvers (Barry Reckord)
RINGO
Smile Orange (Trevor Rhone)
MAN
Nice (Mustapha Matura)
TONY
Sweet Talk (Michael Abbensetts)
GEORGE
11 Josephine House (Alfred Fagon)
JACKSON
Pantomime (Derek Walcott)
CONTEMPORARY MONOLOGUES
ALVIN
A Jamaican Airman Foresees his Death (Fred D’Aguiar)
AJ
Two Step (Rhashan Stone)
LEMN SISSAY
Something Dark (Lemn Sissay)
DONOVAN
Boy With Beer (Paul Boakye)
BROWN
Blackta (Nathaniel Martello-White)
PURPLE
Brother to Brother (Michael McMillan)
ANDRE
The Westbridge (Rachel De-lahay)
JUNIOR
Statement of Regret (Kwame Kwei-Armah)
KEHINDE
Little Baby Jesus (Arinze Kene)
CHUKS
Fixer (Lydia Adetunji)
KKK
Bashment (Rikki Beadle-Blair)
BANZA
Two Horsemen (’Biyi Bandele-Thomas)
PRIN OSUN
Pandora’s Box (Ade Solanke)
UNNAMED
Black T-Shirt Collection (Inua Ellams)
BEN
B is for Black (Courttia Newland)
YINKA
The Estate (Oladipo Agboluaje)
JOE
Joe Guy (Roy Williams)
SIMON
Pure Gold (Michael Bhim)
Note
CLASSICAL
MONOLOGUES
From
MOON ON A RAINBOW SHAWL
by Errol John
Moon on a Rainbow Shawl premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 4 December 1958, directed by Frith Banbury with a cast size of thirteen actors including Earle Hyman (Ephraim), Jacqueline Chan (Esther), Barbara Assoon (Mavis), Vinnette Carroll (Sophia), Lionel Ngakane (Old Mack), Soraya Rafat (Rosa), Johnny Sekka (Policeman), Berril Briggs (Jenette), Robert Jackson (An American Sailor), Leo Carera (Prince), John Bouie (Charlie), Leonard Davis (An American Solider), and Clifton Jones (Young Murray).
Moon on a Rainbow Shawl was well received in London, which resulted in revivals of the production at Theatre Royal Stratford East (1986) directed by the author; at the Almeida Theatre (1988) directed by Maya Angelou; and later I brought the play to the National Theatre’s attention, which resulted in another revival on the Cottesloe Stage at the National Theatre (2012). The most recent production was directed by Michael Buffong starring Martina Laird, whose performance as the leading role Sophia, gained a nomination for the Evening Standard Best Actress Award. Moon on a Rainbow Shawl has also been performed internationally, namely New York, Iceland, Hunga
ry and Argentina.
Moon on a Rainbow Shawl is a play about the ‘hopes and dreams’ of the Trinidadian residents on Old Mack’s ramshackle backyard property in East Dry River District, post-Second World War. Errol John uses his play to show the effects of the Second World War on the economic state of the country which leads the characters in the play to either accept their lives or take drastic measures to change them. The play centres on two male protagonists, Charlie Adams and Ephraim, who both struggle to deal with the adversities of life in Trinidad in the late 1940s. The yard is occupied by the Adams family who have faced hardship ever since husband Charlie was released from the West Indian cricket team. Charlie’s downfall has turned him into a full-time alcoholic dependent on his wife Sophie to be the main breadwinner of the family and also parent their two children. With only a few weeks before his eldest daughter Esther returns to school, the family are desperate for more money to buy her school equipment and uniform, Charlie decides to take matters into his own hands, which leads to more devastation in the family. Trolleybus driver Ephraim is exasperated by the limited employment opportunities available to him in Trinidad and desperately wants to leave the yard’s daily antics, prostitution and brawls. He plans to migrate to England for a better life but can the news of girlfriend Rosa’s pregnancy make him change his mind?
About the Playwright
Actor and award-winning playwright Errol John was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad in 1924 and died on the 10 July 1988 in Camden, North London. Errol John began his career as an artist and journalist before embarking on an acting career. Errol became a member of the Whitehall Players theatre group in Port of Spain, Trinidad. After World War II, he came to London to pursue his acting career. In London, John became dissatisfied with the small parts which were on offer to black actors, and therefore, decided to try his hand at playwriting. In 1957, Errol John won The Observer’s Award for ‘Best New Playwright’; the award specified that winners should write a play about post-World War II, which led to the groundbreaking Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, Errol’s first professionally produced stage play.
The Oberon Book of Monologues for Black Actors, Monologues for Men, Volume 1 Page 1