With all government-advised precautions in place, the Actors Centre continues its preparations for this month’s strictly limited premiere run of Cliffordkuju Henry’s powerful new play In Search of a White Identity. What have the cast been getting up to in rehearsals? Check out our gallery.
In Search of a White Identity runs on Friday 27 and Saturday 28 March 2020 only at the Tristan Bates Theatre – with an opening night post-show Q&A chaired by MyTheatreMates founder Terri Paddock.
The play was originally performed as a work-in-progress during The Actors Centre’s 2019 Working Class Season, curated by Actor Awareness. In line with the recent announcement that the John Thaw Studio will become a home for new writing, offering year-round development opportunities for artists, In Search of a White Identity was picked up for further development and this fully staged production in the Centre’s flagship 70-seat Tristan Bates Theatre.
In In Search of a White Identity, Mickey, Patrick and Mo are three men of different cultures who are forced to face each other and their divergent political beliefs head-on when they find themselves held in a police cell. Patrick and Mickey grew up together, so why have they been arrested on opposing sides of an English Defence League march? And why have they been put in a cell with Muslim Mo?
This urgent piece of new writing explores race, class and masculinity through the prism of detainment. The premiere production is directed by Victoria Evaristo and stars author Cliffordkuju Henry as Patrick alongside Drew Edwards as Mickey and Ali Zaidi as Mo. It is produced by Jan Tsekpo for Toad in the Hole Theatre Company in association with The Actors Centre.
A statement on #COVID_19 from #TheActorsCentre. We are currently open and all workshops and theatre performances will continue to operate as scheduled. We are closely monitoring the situation and will update if anything changes.
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— Tristan Bates Theatre (@TristanBates) March 14, 2020
Rehearsal photos
Photography by Joe Twigg.