6 minute read
Arts & Entertainment
Curator Phillippe Cato
peckham’s young, Gifted and Black artists deliver fiveweek festival ―
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By Holly O’Mahony
Theatre Peckham’s annual festival supporting and celebrating the work of young, black artists returns for the fourth year running this autumn. Founded by the theatre’s artistic director and CEO Suzann McLean in 2019, the festival’s name is a homage to Nina Simone’s 1969 Civil Rights Movement anthem, ‘To Be Young, Gifted and Black’. The 2022 season is spread across five weeks, with nine artists staging 10 productions over that time, each running for three performances, and spanning theatre, dance, spoken word, comedy and music.
“Championing and supporting underrepresented artists has been our mission,” says Associate Director of Theatre Peckham and curator of the season, Phillippe Cato. Formerly the New Work Associate for revered arts organisation Paines Plough, Phillippe joined the Theatre Peckham team in December 2021 and also curated its larger Peckham Fringe festival in May.
“[Young, Gifted & Black] is much smaller and more focused. I wanted to give these artists more support and more direct contact with the Theatre Peckham team,” he says. The artists in question are young professionals, aged under 30, who “might not have had the same opportunities as their peers”.
The theatre has worked with these artists, offering them mentoring in areas including writing, directing and production. (It’s also been supporting them financially using a grant received by Southwark Council for Black History Month.) Phillippe believes “for artists, often the most useful thing is having an opportunity to put on your work in front of other people”, so providing a platform for the artists to stage their work has been the priority.
All 10 events are taking place in the main auditorium at Theatre Peckham, which seats over 180 visitors. It’s a flexible space that can be reconfigured into various formats, allowing the artists freedom in how they stage their work. Plenty are being presented in the standard end-on format, but one show, Edi De Melo’s Mulatto Boy, is being staged in-the-round, with audiences encircling the performer.
“There’s no expectation for the shows to be super polished or the final product,” Phillippe stresses. At the same time, the shows are ready to meet their audience, with themes of identity, friendship, loss, self-discovery and black womanhood explored across the versatile programme. Building on existing relationships was important to Phillippe’s curation of the programme – and he’s pleased to welcome back Peckham Fringe favourites No ID by Tatenda Shamiso and Innocent Means Not Guilty by India Wilson. India is also presenting a new show, One Way Out, as part of the season. Tickets for each show are priced at £15 (with concessions available), and profits will be split between the box office and artists, as is typical practice in the theatre sphere. Also important to Phillippe is providing his audience a space to process and discuss the work. “We realised how important it is for people who visit cultural institutions to talk about what they saw after, rather than seeing and leaving,” he says. Conversation stations, run by members of the Theatre Peckham team and the artists involved, will be opened after each performance.
For the artists involved, Phillippe hopes “the season provides a great opportunity for them to expand upon their existing work, and grow and develop as artists… that they are able to shape and develop their work further, and then to be able to share that with more and more people.”
As for the punters, “I really want audiences to come and see diversity and black artists on stage … I hope the stories resonate with the local community and that there is a celebration of black artistry as a whole.
“We do a lot to champion underrepresented voices, and I'd love for the wider theatre industry to invest in black artists in a way that doesn’t feel tokenistic or performative.” www.theatrepeckham.co.uk
young, gifted & Black: the full programme ―
nO ID Written and performed by Tatenda Shamiso October 3 - 5, 7:30pm Returning after a sold-out run at Peckham Fringe, NO ID explores what it takes to validate black and queer identities in the eyes of the British legal system through the story of a transgender migrant.
DArk MATTEr Written and performed by Tatenda Naomi Matsvai October 7 - 9, 7:30pm Spoken word poetry, quantum physics and Zimbabwean cultural cosmology collide in Tatenda Naomi Matsvai’s autobiographical tale of grieving her Zimbabwean grandmother all the way from south London.
ELLIpsIs Written by Tambo Silavwe October 10 - 12, 7:30pm A brave, one-woman show exploring the joys and lows of maternity, and the sensitive subject of stillbirths and child loss.
InnOCEnT MEAns nOT GuILTy Written by India Wilson October 14 - 16, 7:30pm Another Peckham Fringe favourite, this comedy drama tells the stories of four black women in their final year at a leading British law school, exploring the higher education system, sexuality, family and black love along the way. MuLATTO BOy Written by Edi De Melo October 17 - 19, 7:30pm Edi De Meli fuses West African theatre practices with Angolan musical traditions to explore the link between black mixed-race identity and British national identity. HOusEWArMInG Written by Tatenda Shamiso October 21 - 23, 7:30pm In this experimental piece, five performers embody one character, Anashe, who reflects on what it means to live somewhere but come from somewhere else.
unDErGrOunD BArz prEsEnTs Our LOvE. Our LIFE. Our FAMILy October 24 - 26, 7:30pm Underground BarZ, a space for emerging creatives to showcase their spoken word poetry and songs, presents a special event in honour of black history, featuring performances around life, love and family.
CuLTurE DrIp Curated by Adeolu Banjo October 27, 7pm Culture Drip, a platform nurturing Gen Z creatives, presents a one-night-only programme of performances from the talent of tomorrow. OnE WAy OuT Written by Montel Douglas October 28 & 29, 7pm / October 30, 4pm When Devonte faces a life-changing event that spirals across time, it exposes the cultural differences between his close-knit friendship group, placing under threat the adult life they’d previously imagined for themselves.
In THE kEy OF LOvE Performed by Kaia November 1 & 2, 7:30pm Kaia Laurielle is a visual performance artist dedicated to pushing the boundaries of storytelling through music. Come along to hear her blend of R&B and soul, inspired by artists including Nina Simone, D’angelo and Lauryn Hill.
