#communitychorus

It was a real pleasure to watch Twelfth Night tonight and see so many familiar faces from Neighbourhood Theatre performing as part of the community chorus.  Alongside NhT members, were other people from the Young Vic’s local community, recruited partially through Neighbourhood Theatre.  

It is a strong and exciting statement from Artistic Director Kwame Kwei Armah, and puts his money where his mouth is in terms of his pledge to build on the Young Vic’s work with people from the theatre’s community, to “conflate” community and Main House work and “bring some more [of the community] onto the main stage”.

The production is a musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s comedy, with more singing and dancing than dialogue.  Watching the community chorus - most of whom have no formal dance training - undertake complex choreography with professional ease was breathtaking.  It was genuinely impossible to draw a distinction between the principle cast and the chorus.

February 2018

There was much that was momentous about last year’s production of The Suppliant Women. For sure it captured a moment and sparked a debate. Its ancient text was astonishingly relevant - even though more than two millennia have passed - highlighting issues of sexual abuse, refugeeism, women’s rights and democracy. For all of us in the lead female chorus, it was our Young Vic main stage debut.

I was struck by the level of generosity that was gifted to us night after night - the standing ovations; the returnee audience members, the five star reviews. And still it continues - I was recently at a theatre not-too-far away from the Young Vic and during the interval of the performance, somebody who recognised me from the show came to tell me how much they enjoyed it.

There was one night that was particularly special for me. It was the night the headmistress of my secondary school (who was also my very first drama teacher) was in the audience. With her, came 24 other Phenomenal Women and a few Good Men - whom I am honoured to call friends. That performance was especially electric. When we, the Suppliant Women, returned downstage for our second bow, the applause was raucous and my heart swelled.

But that was only half the reason that performance stands out in my memory. Outside the theatre after the show, a group of local young people approached me to give me their review of the performance. It was a joyous exchange; they loved the show, I loved their energy and they seemed to really enjoy chatting to this person they’d just seen on the stage. Some of them had designs on careers in the arts, as actors and directors. Of all the post-show conversations I had with audience members during the run, that one was my favourite.

It’s something that I wish I had a lot more of when I was their age: access to aspiration. The opportunity to look to spaces in the world - theatre, especially - and see people from where I am from who look dress and sound like me in these spaces, owning them. And that’s why the Young Vic Taking Part team’s role in recruiting actors and singers for both choruses from the local community was so significant. Too often the arts and entertainment worlds cater to a particular set of society, at the exclusion of others. Not everything is for everybody and I don’t believe it should be; what I do believe though, is that there should be a good, reflective balance.

Of all the things that were momentous about The Suppliant Women, being a young, black, working-class woman performing on the main stage of a theatre in the inner-city London borough where I was born and raised - with all those young people there to see it - was the most important.