Work Produced in Britain to 1993
This is, in essence, the bibliography originally submitted with the essay ‘Black Women Playwrights in Britain’ Some of these scripts are discussed at greater length in the essay. It has been supplemented with a few names / plays from before 1993 of which I was not aware at the time. White or male co-writers are given in brackets. It has been updated to indicate where plays were subsequently published and to begin to add dates where possible.
Titles underlined indicate that plays have been published and where this was in an anthology e.g. ‘in Mortimer’, this indicates the editor of the anthology. Publication details of most anthologies are given at the end.
Though BAME was not yet the term in use, this list also includes Chinese and Maori women’s work. African-American (US), African (AF) women listed are or were resident in Britain at the time of writing (1988-89) or their play/s being produced. C indicates Caribbean women playwrights produced in Britain with e.g. JM to indicate Jamaica.
Many of the plays from this era are unpublished and missing from the archives. If you can add more titles – or have copies of scripts that you would like to pass on to an archive to ensure they survive, please email
contact@unfinishedhistories.com
A
Sandra Agard
Women and Sisters (Royal Court YPT, 1986)
For We Are Women (Rano Asian Women’s Drama,
What’s in it for Us? Black Women’s Drama / Docklands Drama Theatre Group at Tom Allen Centre, c1989)
Rukhsana Ahmad
Song for a Sanctuary (Common Stock Theatre, Kali 1990) in George, 1993
Tracey Anderson
Adjoa Andoh
Just My Luck
(previously called Rachilo, Theatre Centre, 1989)
Cindy Artiste, (US)
Meridian (based on Alice Walker’s novel, produced Contact Theatre, Manchester, 1990)
Dreams With Teeth
B
Christine Belle
Word of Mouth (Staying Power, Nottingham, c1988)
The Bemarro Sisters
Gloria (Second Wave, Albany Empire)
Peggy Bennette Hume
Children’s plays for Roots, Carib etc.
Sudha Bhuchar & Kristine Landon Smith
Untouchable (Tamasha, Riverside Studios, 1989), Nick Hern Books, c1999
Kelly Brown
Eating Strawberries in the Toilet
Petronella Breinburg
Young people’s plays for L’Ouverture theatre
Hyacinth Brown (C-JM)
BUPS (Roots Theatre)
Barbara Burford
Patterns (Changing Women, Drill Hall/Oval House, 1985)
C
Ruth Carter
Women of the Dust (Tamasha, 1992) Nick Hern Books, c1999
Lawmary Champion
An Apple or an Orange
Meira Chand
House of the Sun (Tamasha, 1991) Nick Hern Books, c1999
Shorelle Cole, (US)
Blind Faith (Second Wave, 1988)
Trish Cooke (Roselia Jean Baptiste)
Pat Cumper
Back Street Mammy (Temba, 1989) in Harwood 2, ext in Considine and Slovo
No Place Like Home ext in Considine and Slovo
Running Dream (Second Wave, Albany Empire) in George 1993
Fallen Angel and the Devil Concubine (Groundwork Theatre Company, Almeida, 1989)
D
Grace Dayley
Rose’s Story (Southbank Poly, 1984) in Wandor 4
Deb’bora
Where Do I Go From Here (Akimbo Productions, Oval House/ Drill Hall, 1984)
Text published in pamphlet form
E
Durlisia Eddo
playreading
Saira Essa, (AF)
You Can’t Stop the Revolution (Temba)
Bernardine Evaristo
Pyeyucca (Theatre of Black Women, 1985) ext. in Sulter. Extracts subsequently published in Island of Abraham (poems, Peepal Tree Press, 1994)
Silhouette (with Patricia Hilaire and Theatre of Black
Women, 1983)
F
Dorcas Faku (AF)
Wenzani, What Are You Doing? (with Diana Taylor, The Africa Centre, 1985) London: Polypton and West 6, 1984
G
Christine George
Family Bliss (The Basement at the Albany Empire, c1987)
Nandita Ghose
Ishtar Descends (Albany Empire, 1986) in Gray
Land (Oval House, c1988)
Bhangra Dancer (Red Ladder, 1989)
Killeon Gideon
England Is De Place For Me (Albany Empire, 1988) in Gray
Barbara Glouden, (C-JM)
Flash Trash (Half Moon Theatre, 1986)
The Pirate Princess (Temba, 1986)
Bonnie Greer (US)
Vigil Part I
in Acting Up! Heresies vol 5., no.1, issue 17
Zebra Days (ReSisters)
Munda Negra in Brewster 3 (shortlisted for John Whiting Award 1993)
The Age of Reason
H
Gloria Hamilton
Pulse (c1983)
Mercy, extract in Callaloo: Four Writers from Grenada, Young World Books, 1984
In Nobody’s Backyard (Umoja, 1985)
Success or Failure (Umoja, 1988)
Ruth Harris
The Children (1987)
The Cripple (1987)
The Writers (1988, all Theatre of Black Women)
Vivian Hassan Lambert
Ruth and Allie
Judith Hepburn
play on Mary Seacole, others with Carib Theatre
Patricia Hilaire
Just Another Day (Royal Court YPT, 1982)
I
Cassandra Isaacs
Women and Sisters (with Sandra.Agard)
J
Pauline Jacobs
A Slice Of Life (with the Bemarro Sisters, Second Wave, 1985) in Considine and Slovo
Soraya Jinton
Lalita’s Way (Royal Court YPT, 1989) in Dodgson
Diane Louis Jordan and Vinnette Campbell
Into Place / In Two Place
Yazmine Judd
Plays for Sphinx (i)
Winners (Theatre Centre, 1984)
Ecstasy Sandwich (1989)
K
Jacqui K
A Black Woman’s Diary
Scilla Kanyua
The Honourable President
Raging Goddesses
Keeper Rosa – War Song
Emisori Rites (Soho Poly 1991)
Jackie Kay
Chiaroscuro (Theatre of Black Women, 1986 in Davis 1
Twice Over (Gay Sweatshop, 1986) in Osment
Every Bit of It (Women’s Theatre Group, 1992)
Lisselle Kayla
When Last I Did See You, (Albany Empire, c1986 ext in Considine and Slovo
Don’t Chat Me Business (ReSisters)
A Way Out (Hi Time/ NPT, Albany Studio, 1987)
Don’t Pay dem No Mind (Hi-Time Theatre, Islington Town Hall, 1988)
L
Thelma Lawson
Safe As Houses (Theatre Centre, 1990)
Joy Lemoine & Sokari
Spring ’81 (York and Albany pub theatre, 1981)
Su-Lin Looi (Chinese) (& Beth Porter)
All Sewn Up (Eastern Actors’ Studio, 1989)
M
Jenny McLeod
Island Life (Monstrous Regiment & Nottingham Playhouse, 1988) in Hanna
Cricket at Camp David
Just Like a Genie (Theatre Centre, 1989)
Una Marson
plays in 1930s (see She Also Wrote Plays)
Chevonne Martin (US)
Domination (Second Wave, c1988)
Sheva Martin
reading, work with ReSisters
N
O
Ann Ogidi
Ragamuffin (BBC Radio, 1988) in Mortimer
Marie Oshodi
Blood Sweat and Fears (1989) in Brewster 2
From Choices to Chocolate (1987)
The S Bend (Royal Court YPT) in Sulkin
Here Comes a Candle
Hound (Graeae, Oval House, 1992) in Graeae Plays
Rena Owen (Maori NZ)
The River That Ran Away/ Te Awa I Tahuti (Clean Break, 1987, in Potiki
Olusola Oyeleye
Many Voices One Chant (BP Young Directors, BAC, 1987)
P
Jyoti Patel (w. Jez Simons)
Awaaj (Hathi Productions, c1986)
Prem (Asian Cooperative Theatre, 1988)
Kirti Sona and Baaa (Leicester Haymarket Studio)
Subah o Shaam (Leicester Haymarket Studio)
Gabriela + Jean Pearse
Miss Quashie and the Tiger’s Tail (Theatre of Black Women, 1986)
Winsome Pinnock
A Hero’s Welcome (Women’s Playhouse Trust, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 1989) in Plays International and in George
The Wind of Change (Half Moon YPT, 1986)
Leave Taking (Lyric, Hammersmith, 1990) in Harwood 1
A Rock In Water (Royal Court YPT, 1989) in Brewster 2
Picture Palace (Women’s Theatre Group, 1982)
Talking in Tongues (Royal Court, 1991) in Brewster 3
Q
R
Paulette Randall
Fixed Deal (with Tash Fairbanks, Women’s Theatre Group, 1986)
Fishing (Royal Court YPT, 1982)
Ravi Randawa
(plays for Tara in Education)
Jacqueline Rudet
Money To Live (Black Theatre Co-op, 1984)
in Remnant
Basin (1985) in Brewster 1
Take Back What’s Yours (Croydon Warehouse, 1989)
God’s Second in Command (1985)
Rudet writing as Magdalene St Luce
With Friends Like You (the original of Basin)
(Imani-Faith Theatre, 1983)
S
Lin Shu-Fern (Chinese)
The Sale of the Century (Mu-Lan Theatre, 1989)
Yasmin Sidhwa
Chameleon (one-woman show with Euton Daley, c1989)
Marcia Smith
Women and Sisters (See Agard and Isaacs, also see under Dodgson below)
Maud Sulter
Hysteria Limited edition CD catalogue, 1990
Meera (‘Feroza’) Syal
One of Us (with Jacqui Shapiro, 1988)
T
Kanta Talukhdar
How’s Your Skull? Does It Fit? (Hounslow Arts Co-op, c1988, full production was rewritten by Parv Bancil without Talukhdar’s involvement)
Nelson and the Burkha
Carmen E. Tipling
Arawak Gold ( with Ted Dwyer)
(Talawa at the Cochrane Theatre, 1992)
W
Carol Williams
All Things Nice (Old Red Lion, 1983)
Sylvia Wynter-Carew
Radio plays in 1960s
Masquerade (1970) in West Indian Plays for Schools
Trinidad: Dept of Extra-Mural Studies, University of the West Indies, 1979 and in Mixed Company: Three Early Jamaican Plays ed. Yvonne Brewster, Oberon, 2012
Y
Sandra Yaw
Spreading Our Wings (Theatre Centre, 1989)
Zerri’s Choice (Women’s Theatre Group, 1989)
Z
Zindika (Macheol)
Paper & Stone (Black Theatre Co-operative 1989)
Leonora’s Dance (Black Theatre Co-operative 1993) in George, 1993
Devised Work includes:
British Asian Theatre
Anarkali (1986)
Mica Productions
Ain’t I a Woman compiled by Ilona Linthwaite and Marcia Tucker (Oval House, 1985)
Munirah
On the Inside
Options Ltd
Are You My Sister? /Unga Dade Wam?
Vauxhall Manor Girls School
Motherland: West Indian Women to Britain in the
1950s scripted by Elyse Dodgson with Marcia Smith, Vauxhall Manor Girls School, Heinemann, 1984
Slave Girl
Wicked Women
White Women Writers Performed by /Working with Black Companies include:
Elyse Dodgson
Motherland (with Marcia Smith)
Mary Cooper
Work with Asian Co-operative Theatre inc. Heartgame (1988, in Remnant 8)
Ruth Dunlap Bartlett
The Cocoa Party (Black Theatre Co-op, 1986)
Other Black Women Writers Produced in Britain Before 1993 include:
Vinie Burrows, US —
Walk Together Children
Whoopi Goldberg, US –
one woman shows
Lorraine Hansberry –US,
A Raisin in the Sun
Adrienne Kennedy, US –
Funnyhouse of a Negro
Endesha Ida Mae Holland — US
From the Mississippi Delta (Young Vic ,1989)
Elsa Joubert SA
Poppie Nongena, devised based on the novel by
Joubert
Micere Githae-Mugo (& Ngugi Wa Thiongo) KEN
The Trial of Dedan Kimathi (Africa Centre, 1984)
Reduta Deux
devised work
Simone Schwartz-Bart,
Mon Beau Capitaine (Guadelupe Centre of Cultural Action, Institut Francais, London)
Ntozake Shange, –US
for colored girls who have considered suicide, when the rainbow is enuf…
Spell no 7 (Women’s Playhouse Trust, 1985)
Sistren C-JM
Muffet Inna All We
Vusizwe Players SA
You Strike the Woman You Strike the Rock (LIFT, 1987)
BLACK-RUN COMPANIES AND ORGANISATIONS included
Asian Co-operative Theatre
Black Theatre Co-op
Black Theatre Forum
British Asian Theatre
Carib Theatre
Double Edge
Harmony
Hounslow Arts Co-op
L’Ouverture
Minority Arts Advisory Service
ReSisters
Roots
Sassafrass
Staunch Poets and Players
Talawa
Tamasha
Tara Arts
Temba
Theatre of Black Women
Umoja
OTHER COMPANIES PRODUCING SOME BLACK WORK included
Camden United
Clean Break Monstrous Regiment
Royal Court
Royal Court YPT
Second Wave
Theatre Centre
Tricycle Women’s Theatre Group
Anthologies (all published London unless otherwise mentioned)
Brewster, Yvonne, ed. Black Plays 1, Methuen, 1987
Brewster, Yvonne, ed. Black Plays 2, Methuen, 1989
Brewster, Yvonne, ed. Black Plays 3, Methuen, 1993
Dodgson, Elyse ed. First Lines: Young Writers at the Royal Court, Hodder & Stoughton, 1990
George, Khadija ed. Six Plays by Black and Asian Women, Aurora Metro, 1993
Graeae Plays: New Plays Redefining Disability, Aurora Metro, 2002 Gray, Frances, ed. Second Wave Plays: Women at the Albany Empire,
Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press,1990
Hanna, Gillian ed. Monstrous Regiment; A Collective Celebration, Nick Hern Books, 1991
Harwood, Kate, ed. First Run: New Plays by New Writers, NHB, 1989
Harwood, Kate, ed. First Run 2: New Plays by New Writers, NHB, 1990
Mortimer, Jeremy, ed. Young Playwrights Festival 1988, BBC Books, 1988
Osment, Philip, ed. Gay Sweatshop: Four Plays and a Company, Methuen, 1989
Potiki, Roma ed. He Reo Hou: Five Plays by Maori Playwrights Wellington, NZ: Playmarket, 1991
Remnant, Mary, ed. Plays by Women vol 5, Methuen, 1986
Remnant, Mary, ed. Plays by Women vol 8, Methuen, 1990
Sulkin, David ed., Festival Plays, Harlow: Longman, 1986
Sulter, Maud, Passions: Discourses on Blackwomen’s Creativity, Hebden Bridge: Urban Fox Press, 1990
Wandor, Michelene, ed. Plays by Women 4, Methuen, 1985
See: Croft, Susan …She Also Wrote Plays: an International Guide to Women Playwrights from the 10th to the 21st Century (Faber & Faber, 2001) for information on Una Marson (also entries on Cooke, Greer, Kay, Owen, Pinnock, Rudet and others)
Susan Croft, 1993, updated 2020
i This company operated as Sphinx in the 1980s and should not be confused with Women’s Theatre Group, who changed their name to Sphinx in the mid 90s