Five Times Theatre Has Educated Me About Racism
Léa Fochesato
Theatre isn’t a 'white art'. It’s just an Art. However, it would be naïve and hypocritical to say it hasn’t benefited from systemic racism and that it’s not full of white privileges.
Of course, change is on its way, and even with our theatres closed still due to the pandemic, we can start the change now. So here are five times I questioned myself and my privileges thanks to the theatre.
The day I was shocked by a poster of Dear Evan Hansen.
Well, this is not a review about the musical, it is a review about a feeling I had when I looked at one poster of the West End cast. I was shocked to see that the vast majority of the cast was composed of white people. Does it actually have a meaning, in the play, that everyone’s White except one character who’s Black? Well, not really, I think.
Some understudies for other roles are Black too, and that’s great. However, they are less visible than the rest of the main cast. Which is white. And why is that? How is that? Then I looked at other posters and the same question came up for many stories that are not about race or racism… I was shocked, I was sad and I was confused. It made me understand how much the industry needed to evolve.
The Othello vs Othello duel
In 2015, Luc Bondy, a White theatre director, wanted to direct Othello by Shakespeare, at the Odeon Theatre in Paris. He passed away during the making, and the production got canceled. However, we knew some details already. His Othello would be played a White actor. With the rest of the cast being white as well, everyone (or at least the vast majority of people) was rightfully outraged.
In 2019, Arnaud Churin, another White French theatre director, also got a White actor to play his Othello, only in his production the rest of the cast was Black. Where Bondy claimed not to have found a Black actor to play the main role, Churin found eight of them to play the other roles. Was he legitimate to direct the play like this? Should everyone be able to play everyone, regardless of their race? Yes? No? Yes, but not yet?
To quote Churin, “we need Black people to play White roles massively. Only after this, we can say that anyone can play anyone.” It is food for thought. I agree with the first part, but I am conflicted by the second part. When and what is… ‘after this’?
The questions I didn’t ask myself when I saw Sylvia, Hamilton & Amadeus
Alexander Hamilton, Sylvia Pankhurst and Antonio Salieri were, in real life, white. I, however, never doubted that the character I’ve seen in Hamilton, Sylvia and Amadeus are them, the historical figures I’ve heard about, portrayed beautifully by actors that happen to be BIPOC. And there, I didn’t ask myself ‘why are they black? Aren’t they supposed to be white?’
Because it wasn’t the point. The point was to hear and see a story about these people. Now, the thing I’d like is to have the same kind of musical about Black historical figures, and any other people of colour that have played a major part in history for we know too little about them. And no, not portrayed by White people. That would make absolutely no sense. The same could be done with major fictional figures as we’ve recently seen with & Juliet. The more we will see talented Black actors on stage, the more we won’t ask ourselves questions that shouldn’t exist. I want to feel these moments again.
The transcending shock and hope Death of England brought
When someone in your family is racist, it is hard. Death of England, by writer Roy Williams and writer-director Clint Dyer, has a lot to bring to the table on the subject. Created by two Black theatre-makers, the play reflects on racism, whiteness in England and love. The love a self-depreciative son has for his pro-Brexit racist father.
To not give away too much of the final twist of the play, I must say it is moving and full of hope. Education can help you at any age, it’s never too late to reflect on our thoughts and actions. Even if we’ve been taught certain things, we can unlearn and we need to remember we all are very strange and complicated beings. I want to learn more.
The many questions from Shipwreck
It is scary and strange, unsettling, and asks a lot of its audience. But it is also powerful and fascinating. It makes me understand how people that could easily get in hurt by a Trump administration have probably still voted for him. And voting is hard. Everything you are reflects in the ballot.
There’s the main question of necessity and needs.
There’s cry, an urge to change everything, although it means everything we know needs to be either thought differently, destroyed or dismantled. It will take time. But the sparkle that touches the thread going to the dynamite will eventually make it blow up. And this play reflects all this, with subtlety and complexity, attaching characters and strong political statements. Not a perfect play either, but something that brings up debate around complicated matters. And that could be positive or negative but mostly, somewhere in between.
So now that I have questioned my own privileges, history, construction of fiction, the fact that most actors I admire are White because they are on stage the most, and everything that appears to be important, what happens?
I have a lot more to learn, so I’ll continue to look for these talents I don’t know yet, these performances I’ll fall in love with and fight as much as I can, on my level, to see the industry change. It is a long journey and there’s so much I want to know it promises to be interesting and strong.