A furious backlash has erupted after a West End play announced it will have two nights for an all “black-identifying audience”. Slave Play is set to open at London Noel Coward Theatre in June for a three-month run and stars Kit Harington, who plays Jon Snow in the Game of Thrones.
Two of those nights with be “Black Out nights” where the audience will be “free from the white gaze,” reports The Telegraph.
However the move is being panned, with an angry reaction on social media including on X, formerly known as Twitter, with one calling it “abhorrent”.
It is understood that white people won’t be turned away – and that invites would be distributed via black community groups.
The play’s website says: “Black Out nights are the purposeful creation of an environment in which an all-Black-identifying audience can experience and discuss an event in the performing arts, film, athletic, and cultural spaces – free from the white gaze.”
Shock and outrage has been shared on social media, with some questioning whether it’s legal.
“This is abhorrent,” said one user on X. “How is it legal?” said another.
“So do we not believe in multiculturalism anymore. Because if we’re keeping the races separate we obviously don’t. What a backwards step,” another contributed.
Others were more cynical in their analysis – saying the move is merely an attempt to try and generate interest in the play’s producers.
One said: “Another marketing gimmick getting people worked up. And would they really turn a white person away. I doubt very much.”
“It’s generating headlines for what is otherwise a dull and very mediocre play,” agreed another user.
Express.co.uk has approached the Noel Coward Theatre for comment.
The play by US playwright Jeremy O Harris has been running successfully on Broadway and portrays interracial couples undergoing sexual therapy which requires them to role-play as slaves and masters.
It has attracted controversy over in the US too, however, over its treatment of sexual relationships during slavery such as those forcefully endured by black women.
