A West End theater will stage shows for all-black audiences to help ticket holders escape the “white gaze”.
Slave Play, starring Kit Harington, who plays Jon Snow in Game of Thrones, opens at London’s Noel Coward Theater in June for a three-month run and will offer two performances exclusively to “all black-identified audiences”.
The events, known as “blackout nights”, are intended to create a racially homogeneous environment “free from the white gaze”, a move critics have branded “simplistic and racist”.
US playwright Jeremy O’Harris’s play follows its successful run on Broadway, which resulted in 12 Tony nominations. The production is about interracial couples undergoing sexual therapy playing the roles of slave and master.
A petition in the US called for the production to be canceled and branded the film as “anti-Black sentiment disguised as art” for its treatment of sexual relations during slavery, particularly those forcibly endured by black women. Noel Coward Theater has an age warning of 16 and over for the play.
It is understood the show will be catered to an “all-black” audience by distributing invitation-only tickets through black community groups rather than turning away white people, which would be legally problematic.
Two performances are planned for July and September 17, and the play’s official website explains: “Dark nights are the intentional creation of an environment in which an audience who identifies as exclusively Black can experience and discuss an event in the performing arts, film, cinema, etc.” athletic and cultural spaces free from the white gaze.
Racially specific audiences, or “Blackout nights”, were designed and trialled by Harris for 2019 Slave Play performances in the US.
The initiative’s website explains how this was “legally achieved” and says “We have not prevented or prevented anyone from attending Black Out performances.”
Previous “Black Out” performances on Broadway were held as private, invitation-only events.
Tickets were removed from general sale and could only be purchased using a special code. This code was sent by a public relations firm to organizations, student groups and other organizations identified as having ties to the black community.
Plans to introduce it in the West End have been criticized as “racist” by London Social Democratic Party mayoral candidate Amy Gallagher.
He said: “This is absolutely racist. Excluding anyone based on skin color in this way is racist.
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He added: “Of course they say they want to get rid of the ‘white gaze’ meaning white people, but they won’t go so far as to outlaw white people.
“This is generally an extremely simplistic and racist approach. We have a large Asian and mixed race population. Will they be encouraged or discouraged from participating?”
Mr Harris explained his reasoning for identifying audiences as black on the BBC’s World at One, saying the policy did not mean white people were “uninvited” and that “people need to be invited into a space in a radical way to know they belong there”.
He added that poor people and black people were told they “didn’t belong in the theatre” and that his initiative was an attempt to allow them to “feel safe with many other black people”, “as was the reaction of black audiences and white audiences”. to different things”.
The idea of a black-only performance had been tried before in London; White people were urged not to attend a performance of the racing satire Tambo & Bones at the Theater Royal Stratford East.
The intention behind the one-off performance in 2023 was to create a “safe, private” space that would allow “an all-black identified audience” to explore racial issues “away from the white gaze.”
It was criticized at the time by MPs including Damian Green, calling it “misguided” and “sinister”.
The play’s producers said: “Two performances of Slale Play will be Black Out nights and further details about these performances and how to purchase tickets will be announced in due course. “No one shall be prevented or detained from participating in the performance of the Slave Play.”
Noel Coward Theater has been contacted for comment.