B IS FOR BLACK
B is for Black was produced by The Post Office Theatre, staged at the Oval House Theatre in London on 1 October 2003. This production was directed by Riggs O’Hara with the following cast: Joe Trill (Ben Nelson), Emma Rand (Kate Nelson), Carol Moses (Imani Shaw), Ronald Markham (Raymond Armitage), Dominik Golding (Michael Cerwin), Akpome Macaulay (Don Kenworthy), Daniel Booth (Jones), Leon Barr (Lamming) and Veronica Isabel (Spencer).
Courttia Newland’s fifth play, B is for Black, explores our preconceptions of others based on ethnicity, class and affiliations. Newland controversially chooses to place the focus of his play on lead character Ben, a black Oxford graduate, who lives in a white middle-class suburban area with his white wife. Ben is appointed as the first black senior manager for West Chamberlayne Arts. Unconnected with his own family members, Ben is now given the challenge of building relationships with the black working class community of the Greenside estate. But the question is, how far is he willing to go to prove his allegiance to his black community and thus identity? B is for Black completed the success of the Chamberlayne trilogy of plays which included The Far Side and Mother’s Day.
About the Playwright
Courttia Newland is an acclaimed British author, playwright and screenwriter of Jamaican and Bajan heritage. He began his professional writing career as an author in 1997, with the critically acclaimed novel Scholar. The success of his first novel encouraged Newland to write the novels Society Within and Snakeskin.
The inspiration to transition into writing for the stage initially came from the theatre director and founder of The Post Office Theatre Riggs O’Hara, followed by further persuasion from Black British actress Carol Moses. Courttia Newland collaborated with Carol Moses to produce his first stage production Estate of Mind in 1998, directed by Riggs O’Hara for The Post Office Theatre. Its success led to Newland being appointed the permanent writer for The Post Office Theatre, which led to many more critically acclaimed works. More recently, he focused his attention to writing novels and short stories, namely The Dying Wish (2006), Music for the Off-Key (2006), A Book of Blues (2011), The Gospel According to Cane (2013) and editing anthologies including IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain (2000) and The Global Village (2009 co-edited).
Other published plays by Courttia Newland include The Far Side, A Question of Courage.
Summary (Extract)
IMANI, described in the play as ‘your typical conscious sister’, is a promoter of the Pan-African Movement and full-time administrative assistant at the West Chamberlayne Arts. She cannot hide her disappointment when she sees the newly appointed first black senior arts manager Ben, is an Oxford graduate from Barnes. Ben is keen to prove to Imani that he is not a ‘sell out’ but when his white wife and father in-law visit him at work, she is not convinced.
Okay…Promise you’ll hear me out until the very end before you try to argue or correct any facts. Remember your dad’s not here to mediate now.
They laugh.
Okay… The first thing I’d like to say is positive. I like you very much Ben Nelson. I know we’ve barely met in the general scheme of things, but I’m a great believer in spiritual energy and from the moment you walked through the door I knew you were a special person Ben. No word of a lie. Even when I got upset and thought differently, you still proved how special you are, showed me I was right about you. And I like that. I like that you’ve proven me right and made me feel good about myself. That’s a very positive thing.
[BEN is nodding, seeming afraid to say a word.]
What I’m upset about is a little more complicated. And you’re right, tokenism has a lot to do with it. In case you haven’t guessed, I come from the same place as those black, white, Jewish, Muslim, and whatever else you mentioned working-class people. We’re well used to tokens being placed in our community, being told they’re here for our benefit, to look after our concerns, all the rest. Because we’re so experienced in this field it becomes fairly easy to spot the makings of a token. The tell-tale signs, so to speak. We get very worried when we do spot any of these signs, because usually – meaning nine times out of every ten – they’re a clear indication of what type of help we’re getting.
Wait. You promised. (BEN waves a hand, letting her continue.) So, what are the tell-tale signs you may ask yourself? How do we know we have a sell-out in our midst? It’s quite simple really. There are three main things I’ve found very telling in all my years in the arts. Still want to hear them?
[BEN nods once again.]
Number one: the token always comes from a highly educated background. Oxford, Cambridge, some affiliate or another. That way, not only does the token have the highest education, they will also find it difficult to relate in a working class environment. Number two: they get the job because they have friends in high places and are recommended, rather than interviewed as such. Jobs like these are handed out on a need-to-know basis. Any advertising in the Media Guardian and the like are purely perfunctory. Number three: (She fixes BEN with a deadly stare.) Number three: (She looks at her feet.)
[BEN: Say it…say it…]
Number three: the token always has a white partner. (She pauses to let this sink in.) Degrees of tokenism can be assessed by the race of the partner in question. White is very bad, Eastern Asian is less so, Western Asian even less. Mixed-race can be tricky yet passable. Black is good, though number two and one have to be called into assessment before a decision is made. And that, is basically that.