Deepest Red

Apartheid in our countryside?

Just a couple of years ago, Trevor Phillips, Chair of the Commission for Race Equality raised the issue of racism in Britain’s countryside. The countryside, he warned was guilty of a ‘passive apartheid'. A very good point or hysterical nonsense? Pentabus Theatre decided to explore the issue a little more. Selecting nine writers from varying ethnic backgrounds, they took them to spend a week in rural Shropshire, “the whitest” part of Britain. Their experiences formed the basis for a series of seven monologues performed earlier this year at Edinburgh Fringe Festival and now touring the country.

So what to expect from a group of largely urban-living writers parachuted into an area where 99 per cent of the population are white? The resulting work was much more considered and thoughtful than you might think. But then, for most of the writers the whole experience was a revelation. Playwright and filmmaker Kara Miller paints such a picturesque image I almost wish I had been there to share the experience. ‘For me it was a positive experience – even though I wore Wellington boots and couldn’t even get a reception for my mobile phone.’ What did she find most surprising? ‘The most extraordinary thing about it was how much like the Caribbean I found it. People dressed up and looked smart when they went to restaurants, they even talked about going to church on Sunday. Also people actually cared what other people thought of them.’ Born in Barbados and educated in Jamaica, Kara was clearly amused by the Caribbean parallels in this patch of the British countryside. ‘The local people were definitely as warm and friendly as people in the Caribbean are. But like in the Caribbean it was tentative warmth. There were times when I felt people were thinking “I may disapprove of you, but it's nothing personal” ‘Her ‘countryside experience’ inspired Kara to write the monologue Letting Yourself Go which was roundly praised when it was shown in Edinburgh. ‘I set my piece in Shropshire and wrote it from the point of view of a farmer’s wife. She leaves a message on her daughter’s answer-phone talking about a black woman with an afro that she encountered in a local shop. She assumes so much about the lady.’ Her assumptions lead to an incident that is best described as an incident of trolley rage. ‘It is a very human play that is looking at prejudice. When it was in Edinburgh there were so many people saying we get it, yeah we definitely get it. Some even emailed me later to say that they had cried when they saw it. The thing about it is it is not just a play about prejudice, it is also a play about mothers and daughters.’
A lesser quoted part of the Trevor Phillips statement of 2004 acknowledges that ethnic minorities may have an "exaggerated fear of rural hostility.” The writers of White Open Spaces including Courttia Newland and Romni Smith go a long way to perhaps not totally challenging that fear but certainly putting it into some sort of context.

Soho Theatre 28 September - 14 October 2006
sohotheatre.com

posted by Andrea Enisuoh @ 8:19 AM