Contemporary Plays By Black British Writers

Natalie Ibu is a director, producer, curator and facilitator of change who in 2020 became the artistic director and joint Chief Executive of Northern Stage in Newcastle. In her introduction to this collection Ibu discusses that for her, the descriptor ‘Black plays’ is rooted in racism, implying that ‘plays by Black artists and/or about Black people – can only speak to Blackness. It implies that white stories – by white artists about white people – are about the universal’, and as such she has rejected the label.

Ibu goes on to suggest that not all labels are bad and in fact, they can be an invitation. She refers to this collection as just that, an invitation to explore the worlds created by these Black British writers between 2010 and 2020. As Ibu says, it's impossible to create a collection of six plays that fully covers what Black British writers have to offer, but as a starting point this collection is an excellent place to begin.