Director warns lack of arts schemes for workers will make UK theatre elitist

The lack of investment in arts schemes aimed at working-class children will create a cultural landscape that is whiter and posher, according to one of the UK’s leading black British theatre directors.

Tinuke Craig, who has worked on productions such as the Donmar Warehouse’s Trouble in Butetown, pointed out that the current crop of black British theatre talent was developed in the 1990s when free schemes aimed at improving access to the arts for working-class communities were more common.

Growing up in Brixton, Craig refers to the 90s as the “peak scheme era.” Over time, Arts Council England funding has been cut by more than 30%, and several academic studies indicate that the arts are becoming the preserve of the wealthy, which Craig believes is producing a narrower worldview.

“I worry about that,” she said. “It won’t be immediately noticeable, but it suddenly will be 15 years down the line, and we’ll go, ‘Oh, all the directors coming out of drama schools this year are from this very, very specific demographic, in terms of money and in terms of class and race.’”

Craig is seen as one of the most exciting young British theatre directors in the country, contributing to a wave of diverse talent on UK stages. This wave includes Paapa Essiedu in Death of England: Delroy, The Hot Wing King at the National Theatre, and Shifters in the West End.

Her latest work is an adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun, a classic story by Lorraine Hansberry about a black family trying to move to a white suburb of Chicago. It was the first production written by a black woman to be staged on Broadway.

The play catapulted Hansberry, who wrote it at the age of 27, to stardom. Craig notes that its themes of home, safety, racism, and belonging have an extra resonance today, especially after far-right mobs attacked black and brown communities around the UK this summer.

She emphasized that the recent riots serve as a reminder that the themes of the play are still live issues for many British people who may not feel safe in a country that questions their place.

Craig said: “There is a lot of that conversation and thought happening in the minds of black people and other people of color at the moment. This is my home in theory; I live in the UK, but there’s this sense that whatever happens, there will always be someone who will say you don’t belong here and you’re not safe here.”

A Raisin in the Sun, produced by Headlong, will tour the UK starting at Leeds Playhouse on 12 September.

Hansberry’s work has seen renewed interest with new biographies about her short life – she died at 34 from cancer in 1965 – painting her in a more radical light. While often depicted as a chic member of the literati during her lifetime, she was a fierce civil rights activist. Notably, she scolded Robert Kennedy when he called a meeting of black intellectuals. One of her final talks to a group of young black writers inspired Nina Simone to coin the term “young, gifted and black.”

The UK has hosted several adaptations of the play, including a 2016 revival at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre and a 2005 production at the Lyric Hammersmith starring Lennie James. Additionally, Kwame Kwei-Armah wrote a spin-off work called Beneatha’s Place, which moved the action to Africa.

The playwright Lynn Nottage has called A Raisin in the Sun a “perfect piece of literature,” and Joi Gresham, who leads the Lorraine Hansberry Trust, believes the play endures because it dealt with issues far ahead of its time.

Gresham said: “We have a mantra at the trust, which is two-parted: the first part says Lorraine is of the future, and the second part says we are chasing Lorraine. She was always leaning forward, very futurist in her work and in her speech, what she talked about, what she thought about, and so she’s really left us a play that we’re growing into.”

Source: The Guardian