Who gets to fall in love on stage?
And while love at its core is universal, Black love often carries added textures; shaped by our cultures, histories, and lived experiences. So when we see it on stage, it’s worth asking, who gets to authentically fall in love on stage?
I first saw Constellations by Nick Payne tucked into a row at student run theatre, Nottingham New Theatre. It was my first theatre production, and what brought me there was my love for messy, beautiful love stories.
Constellations follows a relationship through countless versions of reality, where the tiniest changes lead to different outcomes in their story. One moment they’re falling in love; the next, they’re drifting apart. It’s a play about choice, fate, and all the little moments that make up a life and a relationship–and how easily everything can change.
Constellations has been revived many times since its 2012 debut, including a Black-led production starring Sheila Atim and Ivanno Jeremiah. This version carried the same delicate, tangled love story once shared by two white characters, now portrayed by two dark-skinned Black leads with the same tenderness and complexity.
In recent years, colour-blind casting - where actors are cast in roles without considering their race, has become more common in theatre. And while love at its core is universal, Black love often carries added textures; shaped by our cultures, histories, and lived experiences. So when we see it on stage, it’s worth asking, who gets to authentically fall in love on stage?
“True accessibility in theatre requires a fundamental reimagining of who theatre is for and how it operates — pushing the boundaries beyond discounted tickets or occasional specialised performances.”
After all, to truly reflect the fullness of Black love, theatre must invest in stories that centre Black lives. This kind of storytelling however remains rare, largely due to the long standing exclusion of Black creatives from key decision-making roles.
According to Arts Council England (ACE), only 5% of the UK theatre workforce identifies as Black. Leadership and creative decision-making roles are even less diverse, with a sharp drop-off when it comes to Black, disabled, and queer Black creatives. This lack of diversity behind the curtain inevitably shapes which stories are told, and whose experiences are left out.
The ongoing imbalance has real consequences: theatre can feel out of touch for many, and audiences remain strikingly homogenous. A 2021 ACE report also found that 93% of audiences at National Portfolio Organisations were white, with only 7% from Black, Asian, or ethnically diverse backgrounds, highlighting persistent barriers around access, affordability, and cultural connection.
These barriers are reflected not only in who gets to watch theatre but also in who gets to experience love on stage. Colourism continues to shape who is deemed desirable in romantic roles, influencing both the portrayal of love and who is afforded love in its fullest, most tender form.
The 2021 controversy surrounding Romeo and Juliet at the Duke of York’s Theatre highlights the ongoing challenges dark-skinned Black actresses face in being seen as “desirable” in mainstream romantic roles. When Francesca Amewudah-Rivers was cast as Juliet, she faced a wave of racist abuse online, much of it questioning whether she was “pretty enough” to play the role.
This reaction revealed more than just racism - it exposed the deep-rooted colourism that shapes how Black women are received on stage.
The response also reveals the often unspoken expectation that Black women, when cast, conform to a more “acceptable” version of Blackness, one that aligns with Eurocentric beauty standards. Amewudah-Rivers’s presence challenged that norm by presenting a dark-skinned Black woman as the object of affection in a timeless romance. It underscored just how narrow the definition of "desirable" still is.
It’s telling that lighter-skinned actresses such as Sophie Okonedo and Gugu Mbatha-Raw have had lead roles in Shakespearean theatre without facing the same level of public vitriol. Yet when Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, a darker-skinned actress with 4c textured hair, was cast as Juliet, she became a target.
The online reception to her casting also revealed the lingering discomfort with interracial love stories where a Black woman is the object of a white man’s affection; as if she is somehow unworthy of it.
This discomfort extends beyond casting choices and into how love itself is portrayed on stage.
Intimacy, tenderness, and affection are key to performing love convincingly and helping audiences buy into relationships. Yet for Black performers, these moments are often cut short, awkwardly handled, or overshadowed by trauma-driven roles. That’s why culturally aware intimacy professionals are crucial to producing a play where every character is allowed to experience a love that feels genuine.
When cultural awareness is missing from the creative process, even well-meaning diversity efforts can fall short, leaving relationships on stage feeling hollow and disconnected from the communities they are meant to reflect. Dunn urges productions to think more carefully about how identity is framed in casting: “Is ‘queer’ part of the character description or is it a descriptor? There’s a difference.” If queer is part of the character description,it shapes the role and influences how and to whom affection is expressed on stage. This issue isn’t limited to queer representation; it also manifests in how Black characters are often stereotyped or reduced to one-dimensional tropes.
Casting briefs often contain coded language that reinforces stereotypes. A report conducted by the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity found that 64% of actors from ethnic minorities experienced racist stereotyping during auditions, with 79% feeling that roles continued to stereotype their ethnicities. Afro-Caribbean actors are sometimes directed to "play it more sassy, urban, and street" perpetuating negative and limiting portrayals of Black people.This stereotyping not only affects who gets to play which roles, but also how love is represented, often failing to show the full, complex range of Black lives and relationships.
One of the few spaces where change has felt more tangible is within the rise of African diasporic theatre in recent years. Here, we’re seeing the industry begin to hand over not just the stage, but also the pen, the director’s chair, and the producer’s desk to a wider range of Black voices.
African diaspora theatre refers to plays created by writers from across the African diaspora that centre Black lives, histories, and cultures. Their injection into the theatre scene has offered a significant corrective to the often flattened, surface-level representation that colour-blind casting can produce.
Plays I’ve loved, like Three Sisters by Inua Ellams, By Their Fruits by DKFash, and Shifters by Benedict Lombe, show how Black love and storytelling come to life when grounded in lived experiences.
When the theatre industry embraces narratives and the creatives behind them that celebrate joy, playfulness, and the everyday, African diaspora theatre expands the representation of Black experiences on stage, proving that Black love, in all its forms, is not only worthy of representation but also deserving of celebration.
But love on stage must be more than just visible, it has to be real, permeating every aspect of production to ensure actors have the best opportunities and audiences in any theatre can experience the messy, joyful, vulnerable, and free love that belongs to all Black individuals.
Who is Theatre For? Redefining Accessibility for a New Era
“True accessibility in theatre requires a fundamental reimagining of who theatre is for and how it operates — pushing the boundaries beyond discounted tickets or occasional specialised performances.”
Theatre has long been celebrated as a powerful medium for storytelling and cultural expression, drawing approximately 15 million attendees annually across the UK. Traditionally, the stereotypical theatregoer has been a middle-aged white woman with disposable income and leisure time.
However, the theatrical landscape is shifting. Over the past five years, younger audiences have begun to emerge, with 27% of 18–24-year-olds now attending the theatre at least twice annually. This demographic diversification presents both an opportunity and a challenge: are theatres ready to evolve their traditional offerings to meet the expectations of these new audiences, and can an industry not known for innovation successfully maintain their engagement? More critically, are they addressing the deep-seated class and race barriers that continue to make theatre inaccessible to Black Britons and other ethnic minority communities?
“True accessibility in theatre requires a fundamental reimagining of who theatre is for and how it operates — pushing the boundaries beyond discounted tickets or occasional specialised performances.”
When we discuss accessibility in theatre, we must expand our understanding beyond physical access to include economic, social and cultural dimensions.
For many Black Britons, the barriers to theatre attendance are multifaceted, extending well beyond ticket prices to encompass questions of cultural representation, social belonging and economic reality. Initiatives like youth discount schemes and Black Out nights represent initial steps toward inclusion; however, they remain largely tokenistic and insufficient for creating sustained change. While this article primarily focuses on Black British experiences, similar challenges affect British Asian, MENA and other ethnic minority communities across the UK. To make theatre truly accessible, we need systemic transformation that addresses the lived experiences of minoritised communities in Britain today.
What Does Accessibility in Theatre Look Like Today?
Accessibility in theatrical spaces encompasses multiple facets: the physical accessibility of venues, economic accessibility through pricing structures and cultural accessibility through representation and inclusion. The sentiment of economic inaccessibility is echoed by Stephen Crocker, the executive director of Norwich Theatre, citing: "To ensure the magic of theatre remains accessible to all, it's imperative that theatres embrace innovation to offer more affordable ticketing options.” Current accessibility initiatives primarily focus on discounted ticketing schemes, such as the Old Vic’s PwC £10 previews and the TodayTix lottery, that give audiences a chance to purchase tickets at ‘special low price’. While these programmes demonstrate well-intentioned efforts to broaden access, they inadequately address the socioeconomic reality we are currently in and fail to address contemporary barriers faced by Black Britons.
These schemes operate on assumptions that simply do not reflect the economic realities of many Black British households:
They presume economic stability that does not account for today's gig economy, housing crisis and unprecedented cost-of-living increases that disproportionately affect Black and British Asian communities.
They ignore escalating transportation costs, particularly challenging for those living in outer London boroughs or areas outside of London with limited public transport options.
They fail to acknowledge the challenges of the post-Covid-19 job market for graduates and young people as well as the income cliff that occurs when young people age out of 'youth' schemes (often stopping at 25), often at a time when financial pressures are increasing.
The Audience Agency's 2023 Report highlights that 'the already least culturally engaged audiences continue to be the most affected [by the increase in cost-of-living], compounding the existing inequality gap in cultural consumption'.
Cultural Norms, Societal Expectations and Who Theatre is For?
The perception of theatre as an elite cultural space often continues to exclude Black audiences. This exclusion is three-tiered: the physical environment of theatre buildings (often historic, imposing structures in wealthy neighbourhoods), the cultural codes governing audience behaviour and the implicit messages about who "belongs" in these spaces.
For many Black Britons and other people of colour, entering traditional theatre spaces means navigating environments where they are visibly in the minority, not just in the audience but also on stage and behind the scenes. Theatre leadership teams and governing boards remain overwhelmingly white and middle-class, even in London where 46% of residents identify as Black, Asian or another ethnic minority. A 2020 Stage survey found that nine-tenths of bosses at the UK's 50 highest-funded theatres are white. This underrepresentation extends across all ethnic minority groups, with South Asian, East Asian and MENA communities particularly underrepresented in both creative leadership and programming, despite significant populations in major urban centres.
Black Out nights—performances where tickets are reserved exclusively for Black audiences—have emerged as one response to this underrepresentation. The concept originated with Jeremy O. Harris's Slave Play on Broadway in 2019, with the Almeida Theatre becoming the first UK venue to host a Black Out night in April 2022 for Harris's play Daddy. Last year, when Harris brought his critically acclaimed and controversial Slave Play to the UK, he hosted two Black Out nights which garnered significant media attention, with some pundits, outlets and the former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak labelling the initiative "wrong and divisive".
For many Black theatregoers, these events provide a rare opportunity to experience performances without the weight of being othered—whether by the subject material of the play, the audience demographic or being expected to represent their entire community. However, the media backlash to these events demonstrates the resistance to even temporary spaces created specifically for Black audiences. More importantly, while Black Out nights create momentary visibility and access, they remain episodic interventions that do not address structural inequities.
The Bush Theatre in West London offers a more integrated approach, having transformed its programming, staffing and community engagement under its outgoing artistic director Lynette Linton and Associate Artistic Director, Daniel Bailey. For many Black Britons living in the area and wider London, the Bush has become a rare example of a theatrical space that feels genuinely welcoming and representative. Plays such as Red Pitch and Shifters made their debut at Bush Theatre, in 2022 and 2024 respectively and both returned to the stage, transferring to Soho Place and Duke of York Theatre in the West End in the summer of 2024. Shifters became the first play by a Black British woman to be nominated in the 'Best New Play' category at the Olivier Awards – showing the appetite and desire for Black plays is not limited to our community
Programming and Representation - Beyond Good Intentions
Programming choices that fail to reflect diverse stories and lived experiences create profound disconnection with potential audiences. When theatre fails to mirror the complexities of contemporary Black British experiences—from our intergenerational stories of migration to present-day urban life—it signals irrelevance to communities already facing multiple barriers to attendance. Similarly, British South Asian, East Asian and MENA communities rarely see their unique cultural narratives, family dynamics or contemporary experiences authentically represented on mainstream stages.
Discounted ticketing initiatives for underrepresented groups cannot substitute for genuine inclusivity in storytelling. Storytelling, Somebody Jones says, must be reflective of wider realities. "To have more diverse audiences, you need more diverse plays," says Jones.
For Black Britons, this highlights a crucial truth: economic access is only meaningful when coupled with cultural relevance.
Systemic reimagining of programming requires:
Employment of Black writers, directors, producers and creative teams who bring authentic perspectives to storytelling
Development pathways for Black artists that acknowledge and address the specific barriers they face in the industry
Stories that engage with the full spectrum of Black British experiences—not just narratives of trauma or struggle
Marketing strategies that speak directly to non-white communities without tokenism or exoticism
Success stories like Inua Ellams's Barber Shop Chronicles (National Theatre) and Winsome Pinnock's Rockets and Blue Lights (Royal Exchange Manchester) demonstrate how culturally specific programming can achieve both critical acclaim and bring new Black audiences to traditional spaces. Similarly, productions like Abhishek Majumdar's Pah-La (Royal Court) and Vinay Patel's An Adventure (Bush Theatre) have resonated deeply with British South Asian audiences by presenting authentic diasporic experiences. These productions succeed because they present ethnic minority stories with nuance, complexity and authenticity without the mediating lens of white perspectives.
Moving Beyond Performative Gestures:
The theatrical sector must move away from interventionist models toward institutionalising accessibility and inclusion throughout organisational structures. For Black Britons, this requires theatre institutions to move beyond temporary invitations toward complete structural transformation that authentically mirrors Britain's multicultural reality.
This transformation requires:
Diversification of leadership and governance structures to include non-white voices at decision-making levels
Reassessment of programming decisions that challenge the default positioning of white experiences as universal
Community accountability mechanisms that give Black and other ethnic minority audiences genuine input into institutional directions
Long-term investment in relationship-building with Black communities beyond urban centres
Economic models that prioritise accessibility without compromising artistic quality or treating Black stories as financial risks
The Belgrade Theatre in Coventry provides an instructive case study of genuine institutional transformation. Following community engagement and outreach in 2020, Belgrade took the significant step of eliminating the term "BAME" from its communications—acknowledging the importance of specific, respectful language when addressing identity. This commitment to authentic representation extends to their creative process, underscored by the principle of co-creation. Artistic Director Corey Campbell explains: "Co-creation sits at the heart of what I do as an artist … our ambition is to make the local community part of every show the Belgrade produces.” The Belgrade has enriched their programming with authentic Black British narratives, from their award-winning in-house production Swim, Aunty, Swim! and new musical play Nanny of the Maroons (opening at the Belgrade in Spring 2027), co-created with Coventry's communities through oral storytelling sessions and involving 1,000 community participants across all aspects of its production.
Most significantly, these efforts have translated into genuine economic accessibility as 47% of tickets for Coventry residents went to lower socioeconomic groups, significantly higher than the theatre's usual averages. According to their 2024/25 Impact Report, £1.50 of social value was generated against every £1 budgeted through Belgrade's Next Steps programme. Additionally, 30% of tickets were issued to Coventry residents in lower socioeconomic groups and 3 in 10 tickets issued to Coventry residents went to areas of low engagement with publicly funded culture.
What makes Belgrade's approach particularly useful is how they have integrated community engagement into their business model rather than treating it as an add-on initiative. By prioritising inclusive programming and genuine community partnerships, they have created a theatre that is both economically sustainable and genuinely accessible to the city's diverse Black and ethnic minority communities – demonstrating that authentic representation and inclusion and economic viability go hand in hand.
Conclusion
For Black Britons and other ethnic minorities, true accessibility in theatre requires a fundamental reimagining of who theatre is for and how it operates — pushing the boundaries beyond discounted tickets or occasional specialised performances. The economic barriers we face are inseparable from cultural and representational barriers, forming an interlocking system that maintains exclusion despite (surface-level) diversity initiatives. While specific barriers may vary between different ethnic communities—with language sometimes being an additional factor for South Asian and East Asian audiences, or religious and cultural considerations affecting Muslim attendance patterns—the underlying structural issues of economic access and authentic representation remain consistent challenges.
“As theatre struggles to rebuild audiences post-pandemic, addressing these systemic barriers is both a moral imperative and an existential necessity. A theatrical ecosystem that fails to reflect and engage with the full diversity of contemporary British society risks irrelevance in an increasingly competitive cultural landscape.”
By moving beyond performative gestures toward structural transformation, theatres can become genuinely accessible spaces where the stories of all the diverse communities in the UK form part of the everyday fabric of cultural expression.
Choreography and movement as forms of resistance.
“The stoicism that Black people have held in the face of adversity throughout history is amazing, but can also be a ticking time bomb…”
Throughout history, dance and choreography has always meant more than just movement in Black communities. It has been used as a tool for resistance, resilience, and identity. From the West African ceremonial rituals to the coded communication between enslaved Africans, dance has long carried the weight of survival and joy in equal measure.
For Black men, movement can be used as a counter-narrative to the stereotypes imposed on them, to reclaim space, and celebrate their complexity and humanity. In contemporary theatre, this tradition lives on. Productions like TRAPLORD, created by Ivan Michael Blackstock exemplify how movement continues to evolve as a mode of Black male expression. TRAPLORD combines defiance, spirituality, and storytelling into performance. In this context, choreography is not just about aesthetics; it is a political and cultural movement.
“Sometimes we’d turn off all the lights…in that darkness, we were just being; there was no character to play.”
In pre-colonial Africa, dance was a prominent part of everyday life, with multiple purposes linked to spirituality, cultural preservation, social cohesion and education. During the transatlantic slave trade, enslaved Africans used dance to maintain a sense of identity, community, and culture in such hostile, dehumanising environments. This included overt celebrations as well as covert acts of resistance. Capoeira was created by enslaved Africans in Brazil, who developed this type of martial art and self defence, but disguised it as a dance. This allowed them to train under the watchful eyes of the Portuguese slave owners, who were oblivious to the true purpose of this dance.
Caribbean Carnival is deeply rooted in resistance and liberation, originating from enslaved Africans mimicking and mocking their European oppressors while expressing their own cultural traditions. The music, costumes, and dance of Carnival evolved into a celebration of freedom which challenged colonial powers.
Narratives around Black masculinity are often rooted in colonialism and systemic racism, as they reduce Black men to tropes: hypermasculine, violent, and emotionally unavailable. Dance offers a space where these stereotypes can be challenged and torn apart. Through choreography, Black men have the opportunity to express tenderness, rage, sensuality, and grief: the full range of emotion that society often denies them. Street dance styles such as krumping and breaking emerged in oppressed communities in response to violence, displacement, and systemic marginalisation. The raw physicality of these forms of movement highlights struggle but also to transcendence - Black bodies asserting their presence and power on their own terms, transforming rage into rhythm, and grief into grace. In this historical and cultural timeline, TRAPLORD emerges as a compelling case study which embodies this philosophy.
TRAPLORD began in 2015 as a therapeutic space for Black men to express their emotions. Ivan Michael Blackstock was dealing with his own mental health struggles, and decided to gather a group of male friends and dancers to open up about his experience. As the space grew and more men started opening up, Ivan began encouraging them to express themselves and their experiences through modes such as rapping and dancing. This ultimately evolved into a performance piece, including narratives that we don’t always see in the mainstream. Drawing from hip-hop, spiritual iconography, and lived experience, Traplord explores Black masculinity as something divine, fractured, and sacred all at once.
This emotional vulnerability is central to TRAPLORD. The production moves through themes of trauma, vulnerability, faith and transformation, blending street dance with contemporary movement. The dancers in TRAPLORD embody ancestors and avatars, confronting systems of oppression while reclaiming their spiritual and emotional identity.
For Ivan, a pivotal part of his own journey has been realising that stoicism, often celebrated as a strength in black communities, can also be a form of emotional repression.
“As an adult, I’m learning that it’s okay to be upset. The stoicism that Black people have held in the face of adversity throughout history is amazing, but can also be a ticking time bomb […] we are still working out how to use this built up energy in a productive way.”
It can feel as though there and less and less places for Black boys to openly express themselves. “With the internet and AI becoming integral parts of life, their minds are going to places that we’ve never been to. However, the body still needs to move just as much as the mind, and even more than before”. This led to Ivan exploring Krump in the world of TRAPLORD. Characterised by raw, explosive movements, Krump emerged in Los Angeles in response to police brutality, as a way for young Black people to reclaim agency over their bodies and emotions.
“What’s beautiful about Krump is that it’s all about storytelling; I want men to remember that they are the hero in their own story, and they can rise up.”
In TRAPLORD, Krump is integrated into the performance not just for its dynamic energy, but for its deep origins in resistance and release. While the audience experiences the final output of Ivan’s vision, what we don’t see is the journey to get there. For a piece that aims to flip ideals about black masculinity on its head, much of the work must be done in the rehearsal room with the cast. Ivan was faced with the challenge of building trust amongst the cast members in order to work with their emotions safely. He did this by offering his emotions, his heart, and his personal experiences to those involved in the production.
What sets TRAPLORD apart is how it makes space for complexity. Black masculinity is not a monolith here; it is interrogated, exposed and uplifted. Through the choreography in TRAPLORD, we witness bodies move with beauty, care and rage, whilst carrying the weight of generational pain. In the sense, Ivan is clear that this performance isn’t just for pure entertainment.
“I don’t want to create a dance show. I think we’re passed that. We can be a lot more intentional and intellectual with the message we want to send out, especially when it comes to hip hop dance.”
In TRAPLORD, Ivan Michael Blackstock doesn't just choreograph movement: he choreographs memory, grief, resistance, and rebirth. The production reclaims space for Black men to be complex, emotional, divine, and broken all at once. As audiences watch bodies move through darkness and light, what they’re witnessing is not just dance. It’s a reminder that resistance doesn’t always roar. Sometimes it’s quiet. Sometimes it weeps. But always, it moves.
As Black choreography continues to evolve, its future lies not just in theatres, but in the spaces where truth is told without apology.
In Ivan’s words and work, there is a call: to keep making room for stories that have too long gone unheard - and to let the body speak when language fails.
TRAPLORD is showing at the Sadler’s Wells East from 28 - 31 May 2025.