SING YER HEART OUT FOR THE LADS By Roy Williams
DANIEL EVANS AND KATHY BOURNE PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHAN PERSSON
WELCOME
Welcome to the Chichester Spiegeltent – and to this new production of Roy Williams’s ferocious, funny and disturbing play Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads. Premiered at the National Theatre in 2002, and exploring what it means to be black, white and English in an increasingly divided twenty-first century Britain, the play’s resonance – soberingly – has grown since its first outing. It’s wonderful to be bringing Roy Williams’s work to Chichester for the first time. One of contemporary theatre’s most influential and thought-provoking writers, he won the Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award for Clubland, while Sucker Punch brought him both Olivier and Standard nominations for Best New Play, and he’s also written several award-winning screenplays. His new play Death of England (jointly written with Clint Dyer) will premiere at the National next year.
We’re also delighted that director Nicole Charles is making her Chichester debut, fresh from her acclaimed production of Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s Emilia which transferred from Shakespeare’s Globe to the West End. Most of the exciting ensemble cast are also new to Chichester and we warmly welcome them all. On 30 October, there’s a brilliant chance to hear Roy Williams discussing the challenges facing young writers trying to change the face of British theatre. Whether you’re an aspiring playwright or simply interested in the future of playwriting, do put this in your diary. Read on for more about our brand new venue, the Chichester Spiegeltent. We hope you enjoy today’s performance and that we see you again in the Spiegeltent during our cabaret season.
Executive Director Kathy Bourne
cft.org.uk
Artistic Director Daniel Evans
To the Chichester Spiegeltent Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads is set in a pub. For this new production in Chichester, we wanted the audience to really feel part of the action; we also wanted to put on a short season of entertainment including cabaret, music and comedy that was totally different from what people might expect to find in either the Festival or Minerva Theatres. The Spiegeltent was our answer. Spiegeltents, or “mirror tents�, are ornate travelling pavilions, constructed from wood and canvas and decorated with mirrors and stained glass. They originated in Belgium during the late 19th century as travelling dance halls. Despite their glamorous appearance, they could be easily transported from town to town, often appearing at funfairs in places where there was no existing dance hall. Only a handful of original Spiegeltents survive today and each is unique. The Chichester Spiegeltent (called Magic Mirrors) is a recreation of the renowned European mirror tents of art nouveau days. Today, they are frequently attractions at arts festivals, often hosting fringe and alternative events. Check out chichesterspiegeltent.com for details of the packed two-week programme of intriguing events and entertainment for all ages in the Spiegeltent from 4 November, bringing the best of the Fringe to Chichester.
chichesterspiegeltent.com
CAMILLE O’SULLIVAN • BLACK CAT CABARET
LE GATEAU CHOCOLAT & JONNY WOO
BARELY METHODICAL TROUPE • A&E COMEDY ANGELA BARNES • SHAZIA MIRZA • JEN BRISTER
WIFI WARS • STEVE McNEIL • TONGUE FU • SK SHLOMO GO KID MUSIC • CILLY BLACK • CHEWBOY PRODUCTIONS SURGE • THE BACKROOM GIG • HALF TERM WORKSHOPS PROLOGUE SCRATCH NIGHT • AND MORE … 5 OCTOBER – 16 NOVEMBER 2019
chichesterspiegeltent.com
#chichesterspiegeltent
Join us in our magical Spiegel Garden. Warm up and chill out with drinks and bar snacks before or after your show. It’s the ideal secret garden bar to start and finish your night! During shows, you can grab a pint at the bar inside the Spiegeltent. chichesterspiegeltent.com
SING YER HEART OUT FOR THE LADS By Roy Williams
... In his foreword to the published text of Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads, Roy Williams tells us that he very much wanted to write a play ‘Not just simply about race, but about British nationalism: what does it mean to be British in the 21st century, who’s more British now, the blacks or the whites?’ He continues: ‘I had been wanting to write about these themes ever since I watched (for the hundredth time) Spike Lee’s brilliant movie Do the Right Thing, one of the most honest pieces of drama I have seen about race. I admired the film because it did not lose its bottle by drowning itself with wishy-washy liberal platitudes. To me, Spike’s movie said ‘fuck’ to all that. It just told it as it was. No apologies. ‘It was not an easy play to write. And I was thankful for that. I wanted to challenge myself as well as the audience and the world of my play. One of the main characters is called Alan. He is a member of a fascist political party, not unlike our British National Party. It was important to
me not to make him a devil. The night after Sing Yer Heart Out opened [in 2002], local elections were taking place all over the country. The British National Party won several seats. People were actually going out to vote for them. What was that about? What was it the BNP said that made them do that? It had to be something. It had to come from somewhere. As much as Alan’s views disgust me, he does say one thing in the play that I totally agree with: If you want to stop people from being like me, then you are going to have to start listening to people like me... ‘That pretty much sums up how I feel racial issues should be addressed. Listen, then confront. No apologies.’ Gary Younge's searing opinion (on the following pages) was first published in the Guardian on 24 May 2019. Some of the seats of power have changed since then but the underlying issues have not.
...
ROY WILLIAMS
SHOCKED
BY THE RISE OF
THE RIGHT?
THEN YOU WEREN’T PAYING
ATTENTION
The seeds of Trump, Brexit and Modi’s success were sown by endemic racism and unfairness. Tackling that is the answer. The morning after both Donald Trump’s victory and the Brexit referendum, when a mood of paralysing shock and grief overcame progressives and liberals on both sides of the Atlantic, the two most common refrains I heard were: ‘I don’t recognise my country any more,’ and ‘I feel like I’ve woken up in a different country.’ This period of collective disorientation
was promptly joined by oppositional activity, if not activism. People who had never marched before took to the streets; those who had not donated before gave; people who had not been paying attention became engaged. Many continue.