In the 1970s and early 1980s, as the children of the Windrush generation came of age, Britain experienced an electric convergence of anti-racist and anti-sexist activism. By the mid-1980s there were around fifty different organisations dedicated to black and/or Asian women in Britain (Anon 1985). These grassroots collectives shared knowledge and resources, campaigned on relevant issues, and nurtured community. Some of the most active included Brixton Black Women’s Group (1973–c.1989) and OWAAD, the Organisation of Women of Asian and African Descent (1978–1982). Theatre of Black Women (TBW) were among the first to translate this political energy into a creative practice. The company was formed in 1982 by three women—Bernardine Evaristo, Patricia Hilaire, and Paulette Randall—and remained active until 1988. (Patricia Hilaire changed her last name to ‘St. Hilaire’ in 1990, honouring the formulation used by her grandfather; both versions appear in this chapter, reflecting the usage applicable at the time.) Various chroniclers of British theatre history acknowledge TBW’s significance (Goddard 2007, pp. 26, 42; Godiwala 2006, p. 76; Griffin 2003, p. 238; McMillan and SuAndi 2002, p. 119), but since the company’s playtexts have not been published and their manuscripts are not yet publicly available, scholarship on their work has inevitably been limited. For instance, despite emphatically lauding TBW as the ‘most important’ of various black women’s theatre groups in his expansive study of black and Asian theatre in Britain, Colin Chambers could go no further with his commentary (Chambers 2011, p. 178). This chapter reanimates the critical conversation. Drawing on Evaristo and St. Hilaire’s personal papers, generously shared by the artists themselves, and further informed by an illuminating interview (Abram 2011), it fills out existing accounts of early black British women’s theatre and offers the first sustained analysis of Theatre of Black Women’s self-authored plays.1 Further contextualising conversations with some of the artists’ peers affirm the significance of this pioneering company, and register the profound interconnectedness of black women’s creativity in 1980s Britain.
History, Activities, Archives
Bernardine Evaristo and Patricia St. Hilaire both trace their involvement in theatre back to the extra-curricular activities they participated in as teenagers. They fondly recall how those groups encouraged participants to express themselves, building confidence as well as providing welcome respite from personal struggles. Evaristo—who is of English and Nigerian parentage—was involved in Greenwich Young People’s Theatre in Woolwich, London, from the age of twelve to sixteen (Bernard 2017). Hilaire attended a group at Hoxton Hall in Hackney, London, where she met and was mentored by actor and director David Sulkin. Sulkin’s support proved vital, and was to endure: not only did he prompt Hilaire’s application to drama school but he would go on to lead the Royal Court Young People’s Theatre Scheme (YPTS) from 1980 to 1985, where Hilaire, Evaristo, and Paulette Randall received their induction into professional theatre (Croft 1993, p. 85). Such supportive individuals notwithstanding, the young women were well aware of the industry’s exclusivity. Evaristo vividly remembers the first time she saw a black woman onstage: it was Cleo Sylvestre, in a production by participatory theatre company Bubble Theatre in the early 1970s. Recognising that she would likely find more opportunities in community theatre than in other areas of the industry, Evaristo targeted her drama school applications accordingly.
Evaristo and Hilaire’s paths converged when they both entered the three-year Community Theatre Arts programme at Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in 1979. That year saw an unprecedented intake of black women, including Paulette Randall, Joan Williams, and Barbara Robinson. According to lecturer Hazel Carey, this reflected the college’s contemporary policy of positive action, in which people of colour, women, and ex-offenders were actively recruited to the course (Abram 2019c). Rose Bruford College features prominently in the history of black and Asian theatre in Britain. Previous students included Anton Phillips, who enrolled in 1969 and later ran Carib Theatre Company and inaugurated the annual Black Theatre Seasons ; Alton Kumalo, who went on to co-found Temba Theatre Company in 1972; Sierra Leone-born Yulisa ‘Pat’ Amadu Maddy, who served as director at Keskidee, Britain’s first black arts centre, and for productions by Dark and Light theatre company; Yvonne Brewster, who later co-founded Talawa Theatre Company with Carmen Munroe, Mona Hammond, and Inigo Espejel; and Denise Wong, who had studied in the first cohort of the innovative Community Theatre Arts programme, starting in 1976, and went on to become Artistic Director of Black Mime Theatre. Additionally, Trinidad-born Edric Connor, who founded the Negro Theatre Workshop with Pearl Connor (nee Nunez) in 1963, was awarded an honorary diploma (Chambers 2011, p. 126). Later graduates of the Community Theatre Arts course include Derrick Blackwood (now Amani Naphtali), who co-founded Double Edge theatre company in 1984. The Community Theatre Arts programme actively politicised its students: in interview Carey describes its socialist principles, coupled with a focus on body, mind, and spirit. The course also valued creativity, encouraging students to write their own material—indeed, fellow student Vanessa Revill (now Galvin) remembers that the first exercise on the course centred on finding a voice (Abram 2019e). This training confirmed for Evaristo and Hilaire that theatre was not just a form of entertainment but a powerful tool for social change. Their time at Rose Bruford College profoundly shaped the company they would go on to create.
The college years were not a one-way education, though: Hilaire and Evaristo actively challenged the status quo. On one occasion in 1980 they complained about the use of blackface by a white student on the more traditional Theatre Arts course. After approaching the relevant programme director, they found themselves disciplined for not taking the matter to their own course leaders; their defence was that the white director of Community Theatre Arts did not have the personal experience necessary to comprehend and properly represent their concerns. The agitation Evaristo and Hilaire undertook eventually led to a daylong conference on black theatre, hosted with the support of their course leaders. This event engaged professional practitioners—including Yvonne Brewster, with whom Hilaire had connected while working at the Keskidee centre during the summer before she started her studies—and publicly established the women’s commitment to promoting black British creativity.
Whilst studying, Evaristo and Hilaire grew acutely aware of how little stage-space was given to black women. A few years later, in interview, Evaristo lamented the continuing cultural invisibility of this intersectional subject:
People talk about black people and they’re talking about black men; and they talk about women and they’re talking about white women. Where do black women fit in? Nowhere; hardly ever do we see our l...