Another theatre to stage ‘Black Out’ nights

Seven Dials Playhouse in London will stage two 'Black Out' performances of a play about a police shooting of a Black motorist in the US, it has been announced.

Blue, which began its run at the venue last week and runs until 30 March, has scheduled Black Out performances next Monday (18 March) and Wednesday 27 March.

The decision comes two weeks after a spokesperson for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak labelled the concept of restricting audiences based on race as ‘concerning and divisive’.

READ MORE:

• Downing Street labels Black Out theatre performances 'wrong'
• Theatre's Black Out performance 'led to threats and abuse'

In a statement the playhouse said Black Out nights are designed to "create an upbeat environment" for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) identifying audience members, adding that they are typically offered when a show’s subject matter means people  "might be more comfortable … to be surrounded by a large number of their affinity group".

"This is not to deter white audience members from attending but an explicit invitation to make people feel welcome and comfortable," the statement added.

Originated by Jeremy O. Harris for his play Slave Play, the first Black Out night took place on Broadway in 2019. The initiative was brought to London during the run of his show Daddy at the Almeida Theatre in April 2022.

Since then a number of other theatres have put on Black Out nights including Stratford East and the Noël Coward Theatre.

'Psychic erasure'

June Carryl, who wrote Blue and co-stars in the production at Seven Dials Playhouse, said she was "surprised" by the comments that came from government on Black Out and does not understand opposition to the concept. 

"When you live in a culture that centres someone else, when you constantly move through space that isn’t built for you – the buildings aren’t yours, the signs aren’t yours, the laws aren’t yours, the language, the stories aren’t meant to include you – it is exhausting, deadening, a kind of psychic erasure," she said.

Carryl added that Black Out nights offer a "sense of relief" and "connection with self and others".  

"Part of what it is to be Black or Brown in a white world is that we don’t live in the same world," she added. 

"We aren’t all invited all the time. That one shares a common set of experiences about the world isn’t offensive. It just is."