From mainstream theatres to Synergy theatre project: black men's participation in ‘urban’ plays in prison

Abstract

This paper compares how urban-themed black British playwriting can be understood within mainstream and applied theatre contexts. The paper first examines the focus of the mainstream theatre's education packs for productions of Kwame Kwei-Armah's Elmina's Kitchen and Roy Williams's Fallout before exploring how black men's participation in Synergy Theatre Project's productions of the same two plays at Her Majesty's Prison, Brixton impacts on participants and audiences in line with some of the key principles of applied theatre practice in prisons.

De los Teatros Convencionales al Proyecto Teatral Sinergia: Participación de Hombres Negros en Obras ‘Urbanas’ en Prisión

Este ensayo compara cómo la dramaturgia negra Británica de temática urbana puede ser entendida dentro de contextos convencionales y de teatro aplicado. El ensayo primero examina el foco de los paquetes de la educación teatral convencional para las producciones de La cocina de Elmina de Kwame Kwei-Armah y Fallout de Roy Williams antes de explorar cómo la participación de hombres negros en las producciones del Proyecto Teatral Sinergia de las mismas dos obras en Her Majesty's Prison en Brixton afecta a participantes y público en línea con algunos de los principios clave de la práctica del teatro aplicado en cárceles.

從主流劇場到Synergy劇場：監獄中黑人男性對城市題材劇作的參與活動

本文對比了英籍黑人劇作家城市題材的作品是如何在主流劇場與應用戲劇兩種語境下理解的。本文首先研究了主流劇場對Kwame Kwei-Armah的作品《Elmina’s Kitchen》 以及 Roy Williams的作品《Fallout》所做的教育資料整合，而後在Synergy劇場專案中，研究了Brixton監獄裡黑人男性對同樣兩出戲的參與，結合應用戲劇在監獄實踐中的主要原則，探討了他們的反應是如何對參與者與觀眾產生影響的。

Keywords:

• Synergy Theatre
• black British urban plays
• black male prisoners
• prison theatre

Notes on contributor

Lynette Goddard is a senior lecturer in the Drama and Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her research focuses on contemporary black British theatre, looking in particular at new writing by black playwrights and black productions and adaptations of Shakespeare and other canonical European writers. Her publications include Staging Black Feminisms: Identity, Politics, Performance (Palgrave, 2007), and she is completing Contemporary Black British Playwrights: Margins to Mainstream (Palgrave), which examines the mainstream profile and politics of plays by Kwame Kwei-Armah, debbie tucker green, Roy Williams and Bola Agbaje.

Notes

1. Urban-themed plays include Royal Court productions of Roy Williams's Fallout (2003), Bola Agbaje's Gone Too Far! (2007) and Off The Endz (2010), Levi David Addai's Oxford Street (2008), and debbie tucker green's random (2008), as well as productions of Kwei-Armah's Elmina's Kitchen (National Theatre, 2003 and Garrick Theatre 2005) and Williams's Little Sweet Thing (Hampstead Theatre, 2005).

2. At the time of Synergy's productions HMP Brixton was a Category B prison, a medium-secure local unit for male prisoners in South London, and was reclassified as a Category C resettlement prison in 2012.

3. Black History Month is an annual event to commemorate and celebrate African-Caribbean history and achievements, held during February in the USA and Canada and in October in the UK.

4. Of course, this is not a unanimous effect. Chris Curniffe, who played Ashley, had opportunities to develop an acting career on release from prison, including a recall at RADA. However, he is currently serving a life sentence for murder and featured in the documentary Lifers (Channel 4, 25 June 2012) about prisoners at HMP Gartree. See ‘Aspiring Actor Gets Life.’ Croydon Today. 9 July 2008. http://www.thisiscroydontoday.co.uk/Aspiring-actor-gets-life/story-11358125-detail/story.html#axzz2XQQ4FYb7 (accessed 27 June 2013).

5. Harry Derbyshire (2007) provides a comprehensive analysis of how the play parallels the experiences of disadvantaged black youth with concerns for modern policing in a post-Macpherson climate.

6. There was also a sanction against recording this production for some reason and, therefore, no copy of the performance exists in Synergy's archive.