The Canary and the Crow

Daniel Ward

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781786827975
• eBook ISBN: 9781786827968
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

Winner of the 2020 George Devine Award Middle Child present The Canary and the Crow, brand new gig theatre about the journey of a working class black kid who is accepted to a prestigious school. A lyrical, semi-autobiographical piece from writer and performer Daniel Ward - using grime, hip hop and theatre, he tells the story of his struggle between a new environment that doesn't accept him and an old one that has no opportunity.

Prologue

THE ACTOR

We are at drama school and often people come to talk to us. Alumni, directors, creatives, whoever. This time a famous black actor has come to talk to us, which is nothing that unusual, except this time the actor only wants to talk to the BAME students. Cue a swath of emotions from every white student. Outrage about being excluded. Suspicion at what those sneaky blacks were planning. Everyone had something to say. The incident became known as Black Attack, which speaks for itself.

Anyway, the famous black actor’s wish is granted and the few black students that are training are given a room to wait in. We, the black students, are curious as well, because after all we don’t know what’s going on either.

The actor comes in. Sits down, is amiable, cool, everything is vibes and then the question comes.

How is it being black at drama school?

A simple question but it is followed by quite a long pause.

No one really knows how to answer.

It turns out the famous black actor is worried. A friend of theirs, another famous BAME actor has recently had something of a breakdown. This breakdown has stemmed from their treatment and training at drama school, decades before. The actor in question had the breakdown because of an identity crisis. The person that they had come into drama school as wasn’t the same as the person that they had left drama school as. The actor in question had left behind their cultural identity to succeed in an industry dominated by posh white people. The actor had become an “acceptable black” and this had resulted in a breakdown a long time later.

The famous black actor had come because they didn’t want the same thing to happen to us.

They wanted to know if the same kind of cultural whitewashing was still happening.

I never answered then but I’ll answer now

Growing up as a black boy or girl you learn about who people and society expect you to be.

These are the lessons I learned.

Taking it all the way back.

Ten years old in my front room.

THE CAGE starts playing music. During the following the Actor becomes THE BIRD.

The Bird.

&&

TRACK ONE – THE DROP

Chorus

A letter through the letterbox

Carries weight, carries power

THE BIRD: A letter through a letterbox. Hits the floor, it means nothing to me, but everything to her. Her is Mum. Single mother, only child. The letter comes. We are black. The letter comes and I can feel the weight. The letter carries weight. The letter carries power, but I don’t understand why. I just know she, mum, is afraid to open it. Looks at me,

THE CAGE: You open it.

THE BIRD: Mum is fearless, so why is she afraid?

THE CAGE: She is the cat’s mother.

THE BIRD: I don’t understand, but I don’t want to open it. Whatever is in that letter, it’s causing my mum to panic and that panics me, so I say – I don’t want to open it. She-/ Mum- she,

THE CAGE: / She is the cat’s /mother.

THE BIRD: / She is the cat’s mother. Mum. Mum snatches the letter out of my...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Prologue
• Interlude