Theatre of Black Women (1982–1988) was Britain's first black women's theatre company. It was founded by

Bernardine Evaristo Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo, (born 28 May 1959) is a British author and academic. Her novel '' Girl, Woman, Other'', jointly won the Booker Prize in 2019 alongside Margaret Atwood's '' The Testaments'', making her the first woman with Bla ...

, Patricia Hilaire and

Paulette Randall Paulette Randall, MBE (born 1961) is a British theatre director of Jamaican descent.

upon leaving the

Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama Rose Bruford College (formerly Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance) is a drama school in the south London suburb of Sidcup. The college has degree programmes in acting, actor musicianship, directing, theatre arts and various discipli ...

, where they had trained as actors and theatre-makers on the Community Theatre Arts course from 1979 to 1982. The course was a progressive, innovative drama course aimed at producing individuals who would be equipped to create their own theatre and be a force for change in society. The company, based in London, was forced to disband in 1988 when Arts Council funding ceased.

Productions

Theatre of Black Women's aim was to produce plays by and about black British women at a time when parts for black women were almost non-existent in theatre. Their first three short one-woman plays were initially staged at the

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England ...

as part of their Young Writers Season in 1982. These were Evaristo's ''Tiger, Teeth Clenched Not To Bite,'' Hilaire's ''Hey Brown Girl'' and Randall's ''Chameleon''. The pieces were also taken to the 1982 international women's theatre festival at the

Melkweg Melkweg (Dutch for "Milky Way") is a popular music venue and cultural centre in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is located on Lijnbaansgracht, near Leidseplein, a prime nightlife square of Amsterdam. It is housed in a former dairy and is divided int ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

, Holland. Other plays included ''Silhouette'' by Evaristo and Hilaire; ''Pyeyucca'', by Evaristo with additional material by Hilaire; ''Chiaroscuro'' by Jackie Kay, and ''Miss Quashie and the Tiger's Tail'', a children's play by mother-and-daughter team Gabriela and Jean Pearse. The company primarily toured the UK with some appearances in Europe. Women who worked with the company include

Joan Ann Maynard Joan Ann Maynard is a British actress who has worked both on stage and on television. Her most notable roles are as Avice in the 1975 series ''Within These Walls'' and as Beverley in the Channel Four television comedy show ''Desmond's'', which ra ...

, who directed ''Chiaroscuro'', and

Gail Ann Dorsey Gail Ann Dorsey (born November 20, 1962) is an American musician. With a long career as a session musician mainly on bass guitar, she is perhaps best known for her lengthy residency in David Bowie's band, from 1995 to Bowie's death in 2016. Asid ...

, who composed the music for ''Chiaroscuro''. In addition to producing theatre, the company ran drama workshops for young black women nationally and in Europe.

Reception

Theatre of Black Women was well received. In ''

Spare Rib ''Spare Rib'' was a second-wave feminist magazine, founded in 1972 in the United Kingdom, that emerged from the counter culture of the late 1960s as a consequence of meetings involving, among others, Rosie Boycott and Marsha Rowe. ''Spare Rib' ...

'' magazine 138, Maxine stated that during ''Silhouette'', "on a Spartan stage the two women resurrect from silence and invisibility some of the history and experiences unique to the lives of Black women... An evocative language of poetry is used by the characters to explore the many subjects, which in different ways permeate both their lives" (January 1984). Listed in the 145th edition of ''Spare Rib'' in August 1984, ''Pyeyucca'' also received positive reviews, as 'it explores black woman and self-image and examines the ways the black woman has been portrayed through the media and how these stereotypes have their mark on black women today. We ask the question to what extent we have absorbed white society’s and the black male’s definition of ourselves and how do we fight against the life-long conditioning that has us so narrowly defined.’ As a result, Pyeyucca has been described as "the rebel black spirit. She haunts Laura without rest: at home, through conformity at school, through the corridors of the ‘special school’ where Laura is sent when her divided psyche can no longer cope. And finally she liberates her. To what? We do not know and cannot imagine. The point of ''Pyeyucca'' lies not in pragmatic details but in the wanting – the trapped black desire for liberation."

References

{{authority control 1982 establishments in England 1988 disestablishments in England Theatre companies in London Theatre companies in the United Kingdom