Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The Amen Corner and the limits of colour-blind casting


Rufus Norris, director of the National Theatre’s new production of James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner, has suggested that the UK lags behind the US in casting black actors, while ignoring the fact that the US has more black people – and presumably more black actors – both in an absolute sense and in terms of a proportion of the overall population than is the case in Britain. “In America, there is much more colour-blind casting,” he says. But then: “Of course The Amen Corner's going to have an all black cast – you can't possibly do otherwise...”

OK, people, let’s have a think about this one.

PS: I’ve just remembered, I rambled on about this sort of thing a few years ago as well. And here too.

2 comments:

Rog said...

Sorry Tim , I came here looking for Andy Fairweather Lowe's gig dates. He only tours in the summer.

Tim F said...

That is one of the least rock 'n' roll names ever, isn't it?