This week, we discuss the position of Black women playwrights in the 1980s and 1990s. We talk to Professor Lynette Goddard (Royal Holloway University) about the politics of representation and Black lesbian and queer playwrights, including Jackie Kay and Valerie Mason-John. We talk about Jackie Kay’s Chiaroscuro, which looks at sisterhood and the plurality of Black women’s experiences. We also include a clip and discussion from Valerie Mason-John’s play, Sin Dykes, which discusses inter-racial lesbian relationships, BDSM and legacies of racial trauma.

Email archive@nationaltheatre.org.uk 

Social @nationaltheatre  

References:

Jackie Kay (1987/2011) ‘Chiaroscuro’ in Lynette Goddard (ed.) The Methuen Drama Book of Plays by Black British Writers. London: Bloomsbury, pp.59-119

Valerie Mason-John (1998) Play script of Sin Dykes MPS 11988 (British Library, Archives and Manuscripts).

Colin Chambers (2011) Black and Asian Theatre in Britain: A History. London & New York: Routledge.
 
 Peter Fryer (1984) Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain. London: Pluto Press.

Peter Fryer (1985) Black People in the British Empire: An Introduction. London: Pluto Classics.

Lynette Goddard (2007) Staging Black Feminisms: Identity, Politics, Performance. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

Dimple Godiwala (2006) Alternatives Within the Mainstream: British Black and Asian Theatre. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press.

Ashley Tellis (2007) ‘We Sinful Dykes: Lesbian Sexuality in Valerie Mason-John's Sin Dykes’ in Dimple Godiwala (ed.) Alternatives Within the Mainstream II: Queer Theatres in Post-War Britain. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, pp.239-247