Deirdre Osborne: Writing Black Back: An Overview of Black Theatre and Performance in Britain
In Dimple Godiwala ed. Alternatives Within the Mainstream: British Black and Asian Theatre Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2006.61-81
Black people have lived in Britain longer than they have in the USA and
yet, until the closing decade of the twentieth century, their
contribution to British theatre has received limited and short-lived
attention. In this chapter I trace a trajectory of representation of
black people in theatre from the early modern through to the
pre-Windrush period to recognize that which has paved the way to the
increasing visibility of contemporary black British playwrights of
African descent in theatre of the new millennium.
