ALW Report: "UK Theatre hideously white"

Well, that's just ridiculous. I can kind of understand if they cast all white actors in something like Half A Sixpence (even though that still isn't ideal). But casting white people in roles that were especially written for people of a specific ethnicity, that's just crazy.

bellboard27

I confess no personal knowledge of the play prior to today, that said the description of the play

"Set in ancient China, In the Depths of Dead Love tells of a poet exiled from the Imperial Court & the favour of the Emperor, who scrapes a living by renting his peculiar property – a bottomless well – to aspiring suicides. Among these is a married couple who exert an appalling influence over him."

Suggests to me that at the very least the Emporer and the couple mentioned should be of Chinese/East Asian origin? One could argue the poet may be a visitor, but this and the rest of the descriptions I've come across suggest a play set in China, about people from that region.

Many people so far have also cited that Richard E Grant's casting in it was also, shall we say questionable, which also leads me to think the writing suggests the character should be East Asian. But if anyone has read it and can correct me otherwise, consider me corrected.

Update that Andrew Keates and others seem to be planning an actual protest outside the theatre, as well as the online protest. (his twitter has much more on this and is where I'm getting much of the response feedback from that I've commented about here)

The Orphan of Zhao was a highlight of theatre going for me. I was sad about the casting controversy. 

But I mean if you went to an ArtsEd school then there's going to be such a mix of white and black students so it's not like there's is a shortage of black performers - look at how many turn up for open auditions for Motown and Aladdin!! 

It's still yellow face, so given the reactions I've seen as I've been following the story, I'd say yes. Though *possibly* there would be a small additional contingent thinking "well they've cast BAME actors, I don't see the problem", well-meaning enough but still entirely missing the point.

Yes, it was a Radio 3 play with an all white cast including Grant and Francesca Annis.

I've found a couple of reviews (including one from The Stage) which give no indication that the Chinese characters being played by Caucasian actors is part of the point of the play (if you see what I mean). Interestingly neither of the reviews mentioned the fact that the characters were all played by Caucasian actors.

In not purposefully making a statement though, they are continuing to indirectly but loudly make the statement that "white is default, white is baseline, white is the norm", which the world REALLY needs to get over like yesterday.

Coming late to this thread, I can report that I listened to the BBC Radio 3 production of Howard Barker's play. It's like most of his plays in that it's not at all an ethnological immersion in a culture, but instead a philosophical firework sparked by a situation or moment or character, real or fictional. All his roles are pure Barker creations, all speaking in his unique poetic language, and they aren't even strictly characters because they mutate from scene to scene or even from line to line, with only the voice remaining the same. It would be completely missing the point to want Howard Barker's roles to be cast and played on the basis of the supposed race or characteristics of any real people or known fictional characters suggested by their names.

This is not going to make any difference - I can see people on Twitter already claiming that using Chinese names means its cultural appropriation.

I am really coming to hate the 'cultural appropriation' criticism. I'm old enough to remember when progressives thought that the melting pot - cultures mixing and melding with one another - was a good idea, and the best way to encourage tolerance and peaceful co-existence. I definitely preferred that philosophy over this current trend for getting offended over fancy dress, fusion cooking and using words and names from other cultures.

The word is "altogether".

It would be nice to think Keates' heart is in the right place, but unfortunately the tone of his correspondence is unpleasant and comes across as somewhat bullying. 'Your tiny theatre', 'cancerous little show', 'disgusting and bigoted casting' (and I see one of his supporters has now started criticising the actors they've cast - how delightful).

If you're going to engage people in debate, the least you can do is address the points they make. His response to the theatre's statement appears only a small step above sticking his fingers in his ears, going 'nyah nyah nyah, can't hear you' and stamping his foot even louder the second time. Which does a huge disservice to the very serious issue of under-representation in the arts.