Black Shakespeare
Today's post is looking at productions of Shakespeare's plays directed by Black directors and performed by Black casts. Day 21's post explored the 200 year history of Black actors performing in Othello. Today we are looking at a broader range of plays.
We’re starting with Temba Theatre Company’s 1988 production of Romeo and Juliet starring David Harewood as Romeo and Joe Dixon as a dreadlocked Mercutio. Directed by Alby James and set in pre-revolutionary Cuba, the show was Harewood’s professional debut and his performance was praised by the critics. The whole play was scored by Spanish guitar playing and there were a number of ‘spectacular dance breaks’ during the ball scene. Writing for the Independent, Guy Nelson noted that ‘it is a credit to Alby James’ adventurous, visually exciting direction that these additions enhance rather than distract from the storytelling’. You can read more about the play’s reception and trace the Shakespearean careers of Harewood, James and Dixon at the Black British and Asian Shakespeare Database.
In 2016, Talawa, the longest surviving Black-led theatre company, staged a production of King Lear as part of its 30th anniversary celebration. Director Michael Buffong chose the play partly because of the symbolic power of showing a Black royal family in Britain’s medieval history (King Lear is supposed to have ruled Britain in the 8th century). The production was set in the medieval period and the cast included Don Warrington as Lear, Pepter Lunknse as Cordelia and Alfred Enoch (pictured here) as Edgar/Poor Tom. The production was a critical and commercial success and was filmed and broadcast on the BBC.
Kwame Kwei-Armah’s 2018 musical adaptation of Twelfth Night offered an R&B take on Shakespeare’s tale of disguise and confusion. Directors Kwei-Armah and Oskar Eustis set the play in Notting Hill in the run up to the famous carnival, added songs written by Shaina Taub and a community choir to the play’s already large cast to bring a party to the Young Vic’s stage. Shifting Shakespeare’s play from winter to summer and to a modern day setting made for a vibrant and joyful opening to Kwei-Armah’s tenure at the theatre. The play was well-received by critics for its ‘inclusive warmth’
In 2022 Roy Alexander’s Weise’s Afrofuturist version of Much Ado About Nothing reopened the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon - for live performance after Covid shut theatres down. In setting this 400 year-old play, which has been performed so many times in Stratford, in an imaginary African utopia, Weise made a powerful statement about the importance of the play’s central themes of love and justice and to making this accessible to the people of the African diaspora. Critics were captivated by the costumes designed by Melissa Simon Hartman who also designed Beyonce’s Black is King tour outfits.
The production was filmed and broadcast by the BBC and you can see a clip of the scene in which Don Pedro and his troops return from the war here
Resources
Black British and Asian Shakespeare Database
Read an extract from Jami Rogers' book British Black and Asian Shakespeareans
Listen to Farah Karim-Cooper talking about her book The Great White Bard
Credits:
copyright and credits: text by Kate Dorney, images by Jonathan Keenan, Johann Persson, Ikin Yum. Citation: Kate Dorney 2025 'Black Shakespeare', Black Theatre History Month project