THE RENDITION MEETS OLA ANIMASHAWUN
The inception of the Black Play Archives was spearheaded by playwright and former NT Associate Kwame Kwei-Armah, driven by a desire to rediscover and engage with the works of African, Caribbean, and Black British writers who had been overlooked over time. On December 19, 2023, the National Theatre unveiled a groundbreaking digital platform for the Black Play Archives, marking a significant milestone in the documentation of Black British theatrical history.
This platform represents a collection of many pioneering achievements. It showcases the first professional productions of Black British, African, and Caribbean plays in the UK from 1909 to the present day. The timing of its launch on the 10th anniversary of its conception as a project initiated by someone seeking to amplify the voices of Black writers is particularly poignant, now evolving into a comprehensive catalogue spanning over 100 years.
The database encompasses 850 plays and features the works of over 300 Black British, African, and Caribbean writers. Among the notable contributions are pieces such as "Pocomania" by Jamaican writer Una Marson, as well as works by contemporary writers like Winsome Pinnock, Roy Williams, and Dipo Baruwa-Etti. Furthermore, the platform offers a wealth of additional resources, including over 70 videos and audio recordings of play excerpts, an extensive bibliography of essays on Black British Theatre, and video interviews with prominent practitioners and scholars in the field.
Cyril Nri (Emmanuel) Adbul Salis (Kwame) in 2017 production of Barber Shop Chronicles at the National Theatre
(c) Marc Brenner
The Rendition met with National Theatre dramaturg, Ola Animashawun to discuss the launch of the Black Play Archive digital platform, and its significance in documenting the history of Black British Theatre, engaging academics and supporting Black British African and Caribbean artists, both past, present and future.
“The archive is born out of a need to capture that work and preserve that work and make sure its remembered for posterity, as a way of informing everybody of what has happened’ whos been where, when, what have they done, what has been achieved, so that you are building on a very solid platform…”
The cast in 2019 production of Three Sisters
(c) The Other Richard
QUESTION: How have you been, what have you been occupied with lately?
Ola Animashawun: I am very well… My year so far has been pretty magnificent. I went to Mumbai for a youth theatre festival that the National Theatre is associated with…. So you can't complain, that is a brilliant way to start the year; to see plays that as a dramaturg I had a hand in, which meant I basically commissioned some plays and I never thought 5 years ago it might end up being performed by young people; connecting with those plays. It was a joy to do that for a-week and a half.
QUESTION: Could you explain the role of a dramaturg, particularly within the context of black theatre?
Ola Animashawun: It’s different for different people.
My iteration of it, is that my role is that it is my job to commission 12 playwrights every year who write plays specifically for young people. Once the writer has an idea, then I will work through that idea with them, as to whether or not we think it would make a good play in the first place.
Once they start writing the play, my job is to be their friendly critic reading each incremental draft; giving notes, suggestions and ideas helping shape plays to get it as best as we possibly can. (After that)), It is handed over to 270 different youth theatre and drama groups right across the UK, for teenagers 13-19 to perform the play. These plays are performed right around the country in a way that no other new writing happens really… That’s what dramaturgs do, generally is support writers(to) get their vision from the page to the stage.
QUESTION: What significance does the Black Play Archives hold for you?
Ola Animashawun: It’s very close to my heart, because it is essentially a record of all the amazing work that has been done by African and Caribbean artists, playwrights, theatre makers in this country. I’m as guilty, or maybe even more guilty than the next person, thinking that Black African and Caribbean playwrights did not have a presence in this country until the 1960s or 1970s and the brilliant thing about the archive is that (it shows) it's not true. I think the earliest play we have in the archive is from 1909 which is before the first world war, which is amazing.
It is first and foremost an educational tool, but it’s also a tool for everyone. I am a great believer in knowing your roots, where you come from and what's gone before. It is so useful for anyone who wants to write plays, who wants to get involved in theatre to get a sense of what has gone before because that’s everyone's history. It’s so easy for plays to get lost. A production can happen and everyone goes mad about the production because it’s so fantastic, but how do you capture that… how is that remembered once 10, 20, 30 years have past?
QUESTION: In what ways can theatre practitioners and academics utilise the Black Play Archives as a valuable resource?
Ola Animashawun: It’s two fold.
It’s on us to promote the Black Plays Archive and get the message out there as much as we can, there's over 850 plays that are housed, 350 Black British African and Caribbean writers are featured and to be found out about in the archive. It’s online, so it is really accessible and free so look it up online.
The other thing is how do you make an intervention in education, not just in drama and english, but also History and maybe even business to try and think as broadly as possible. What is the precedence and what has been the contribution of the diaspora - what contribution has been made directly through playwriting and all forms of literature to encourage that mindset and to encourage curiosity that if you don’t know, let's find out. If you know about Winsome Pinnock, or Roy Williams - use those writers to search because nobody has come from nowhere.
When you ask me about my relationship with the archive; my passion is that there are brilliant plays that don’t get done anymore because people don’t know about them, names that you've never heard of anymore but are there… The archive is brilliant because you can find a way of getting to read those plays and bring them to life.
Fix Up 2004 in rehearsals
(c) Catherine Ashmore
“The archive is close to my heart, because it is just like a big treasure trove, of plays, interviews, videos and excerpts on the plays just to get a sense of who’s been here before and what they’ve done for us that we can build on and then leap of from that position”
QUESTION: What significance does the Black Play Archives hold for black actors and artists overall?
Ola Animashawun: As I said in the beginning, it's finding out your roots.
It makes (them) you stronger if you know your roots, it gives you more confidence on what you want to say because what you want to say might be completely new and completely original, but it might not be and you might discover that it has been said before or said in a particular way before.
You can’t knock knowing. The more you know the more informed you are and the more enlightened you are; your horizons are broadened by having that wealth of knowledge, or to know that it’s there is going to enhance your craft without a doubt.
QUESTION: What challenges did the team behind the Black Play Archives encounter in gathering, organising, and preserving these historical materials?
Ola Animashawun: The archive team at the National are brilliant so I give kudos to them!
It takes energy, effort and dedication to go “I want to find these plays”, but that is the genius work of an archivist. It is also dependent on artistic directors from other companies keeping their own archives and handing them over.
It is also dependent on word of mouth, but also on people's passion because we all keep stuff, were all hoarders (theatre-makers), we all remember stuff and that's the work of the archivist, it’s to find those people, those custodians who are are doing it individually and privately saying lets try and bring it all together, lets try an centralise it now. Tell us, get in touch, because we don’t want to lose that work.
The bigger it gets, the more it grows and the more of an amazing resource it becomes.
QUESTION: What significance and pleasure do you believe future generations will discover in accessing these materials?
Ola Animashawun: The importance is the contribution, impact and influence of Black British Theatre on British culture and in British life. It is not something we remember once a year for one month a year, or that was invented in the early noughties etc. Know that it is part of a history that stretches back to 1909 and possibly before then.
I would love it not only if hat passion and interest is celebrated by future generations of people with African and Caribbean heritage knowing that we have been here for a very long time and we have made a massive contribution and then plays that a currently in the archive, maybe not currently being known about are re-discovered and then finding their way to the British national curriculum syllabus.
QUESTION: In your view, what are some of the most significant plays authored by black playwrights?
Ola Animashawun: One of my favourites is a play called ‘Two Can Play’ by Trevor Rhone.
It’s a two-hander, set in Jamaica in the 70s about a middle-aged couple having a really hard time in Jamaica as they are on the brink of civil war. Needing to make a decision on do you stay or do you go, do you either stay together or do you go; the lure of America as the land of the free and the land of milk and honey. It’s an interesting parallel which I think people in our communities face all the time’ should i stay or should I go? Is there a land of milk and honey? It’s just a brilliant play (and), really well written, really funny and one of my favourite plays that's lesser known.
QUESTION: What do you envision for the future of black plays in the UK, especially regarding representation, accessibility and impact on the theatre community?
Ola Animashawun: There is a lot of work that we do in brilliant theatres like the National Theatre and the Bush Theatre, in the smaller theatres and up and down the country. The cliche is the glass ceiling, it still feels like there is a glass ceiling. We are celebrating getting work in the curriculum, but there must be a lot more. I guess what comes first is the impact on the bigger stages in the country, as well as to be found here the National, they are also found in the Westend.
We (need) to get over the ‘were the first to be..’ we get over that. It should be a regular thing, a throughput of impact, skill, imagination and craft is not only recognised, it’s valued (and that is) for writers, directors, theatre makers, designers. I’m over the classic cannon, it needs to be diversified (we) need a level playing field that is like for like and one for one and it’s not seen as a novelty. (We don’t need) only one, just the next one and then another - (where) the names become a lot more commonplace and understood.
The Black Plays Archive is a rich resource that everyone should tap into, as Ola stated, there is brilliant work being done by Black British, African and Caribbean theatre makers all over the country past, present and future; and our duty is to amplify their voice by viewing and engaging with the work.
The Black Plays Archive can be viewed online, or visited in-person, located offside from the National Theatre on The Cut.
