Chuk Iwuji In recent years black actors have not only been playing parts in Shakeseare's plays but are winning major roles.

While America is facing up to the reality of having what could be its first black President, England can already boast several black kings. By Lisa Urquhart

Admittedly, so far they have only been actors playing parts in Shakespeare, meaning America still remains streets ahead of England when it comes to social change. But last month’s sell out run of Shakespeare’s Histories at London’s Roundhouse, starring Chuk Iwuji as Henry VI, shows that there is a sea of change happening in our own English theatre. This has been highlighted in recent years by several other black actors, who are not only performing in Shakespeare’s plays but taking lead roles.

Iwuji, who is exhausted from the RSC’s two year run of the Histories, puts this advance down to the explosion of talent coming through the ranks. “If you look at drama schools now there are a lot more black actors – and good black actors,” he says. Iwuji himself follows in the footsteps of a host of famous black actors who have played major Shakespearean roles. They include Adrian Lester, who back in 2003 was Henry V at The National Theatre’s highly praised production, and Lennie James who played Oberon in the BBC’s modern reworking of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The Snatch actor is no stranger to Shakespeare; his other acting credits include parts in Hamlet, Two Gentlemen of Verona and Macbeth .And it is not just the men that are, punning aside, getting in on the act. Last year, Martina Laird played the part of Bianca in the critically acclaimed Donmar Warehouse production of Othello. That production also saw Chiwetel Ejiofor, who in the past has played Romeo in Romeo and Juliet at The National, not only outshine fellow actor Ewan McGregor, but also pick up an Olivier Award for his emotionally laden performance as Othello.

But while these actors prove that there are increasing numbers of talented black actors out there more than capable of excelling in Shakespeare, making it to centre stage still depends on directors and theatre producers taking the decision to cast black actors. The person instrumental in Iwuji’s portraying Henry VI was Michael Boyd, artistic director at the RSC, who has a history of colour-blind casting. Back in 2000, he caused controversy when he cast David Oyelowo, again in Henry VI, making him the first ever black man to play an English king on stage. It was a situation he describes as “shameful”, considering how long it had taken to happen.

Much was made in the press about Oyelowo’s casting, but Boyd, like other directors who have put black actors in lead roles, is insistent that the only factor in his decision was getting the actor who was best for the role. “It didn’t feel at the time like we had done something controversial. I just picked the right person for the role,” he explains. “There was a presence about him [Oyelowo] and I thought he had to be in a big part, and soon. It wasn’t until the media reaction and some of the dodgy mail that we got, usually written on wonky typewriters, that I realised other people saw it differently.”

Boyd may be puzzled about people’s reaction back then, and again at Iwuji’s casting this time round, but he puts the previous dearth of black lead actors cast in Shakespeare down to a lack of imagination on the part of directors. “I think it was the literalism in English theatre that looked at Shakespeare as documentary rather than an art form.” In turn, Dominic Dromgoole, artistic director at the Globe Theatre, believes it is the quality of the plays themselves that invite a broader interpretation.

“There are universal themes of love, loss, relationships and family that run through the works of Shakespeare. That means it does lend itself more to colour blind casting, more so than modern plays,” he says.

Shakespeare's plays lend themselves to 'colourblind casting'

Lisa Urquhart Often it is only with Shakespearean plays where black actors are afforded a rare opportunity for a level playing field.

He points to his own decision to cast Eastender’s actress Dianne Parish in a play that had originally been scripted for all white actors, the move was initially resisted by the producers of the show. While Dromgoole won his battle with only minimal argument, the problem of colour-blind casting in modern plays still remains. This was vividly demonstrated when Ejiofor was cast in The Vortex, Noël Coward's play about drug abuse among the upper-classes, triggering a huge fuss and heated media debate. The commotion focused around the fact that the black Ejiofor played Nicky, the son of Florence Lancaster in the production who was played by white actress Francesca Annis.

With such controversy, often it is only with Shakespearean plays where black actors are afforded a rare opportunity for a level playing field. Iwuji, who is now busily contemplating his options, which could include a call from Hollywood, believes that a key reason why Shakespeare’s plays offer themselves to colour blind casting is because they were written so long ago. This takes them outside of the audience’s experience, allowing for more imagination. “It doesn’t matter that because you have an English King you don’t have an English guy, or that one member of the House of Warwick in the play was black and that another was white,” he says.

“The audience seem more ready to accept that in Shakespeare than they would with a modern family play set in this century, featuring a white daughter and black father. With classical theatre they are willing to go on more of a journey.” But if things are changing on the stage, the revolution is happening a little slower in the stalls. Mary Butlin, who is responsible for audience development at the RSC, admits that audiences still do not reflect the wider UK population, with the theatre only attracting three per cent of theatre goers from black or other minority ethnic groups against the nine per cent nationally.

However, this is still a big improvement on the one per cent when Butlin started her job three years ago and equates to 15,000 more BME people passing through the RSC’s doors. One of the factors that have driven the increase is the theatre’s ongoing work with the local black community groups near to the theatre’s Stratford base, including cities such as Birmingham. It has also set up a race equality forum that works closely with its marketing division. The RCS is also again running its bursary scheme to train black journalists as theatre critics so they can write about its own productions – and those of other theatres – in the national and local black press. Like other theatres, including The Globe and the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park, it also runs education programmes for local schools.

Iwuji believes these efforts to get youngsters interested in plays and theatre at an early stage are the key to future higher participation among black and other minority ethnic groups. “It’s been seen as a bunch of middle class white people spouting language that no one enjoys. It’s important that we get it right at the school level then we will see more black kids coming to the theatre,” he says. One thing that both the Globe and the RSC have done to help bring in both black and non traditional audiences is show non-Shakespearean plays. Last year, the RSC staged Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses, which was specifically aimed at young people. This year, the Globe is staging The Frontline, a play about the different communities in London’s Camden area.

The RSC’s Boyd believes that plays which encourage both young and older black audiences to go to theatres will lead to more black audiences watching the works of Shakespeare. “If they see something like this, it is then a much smaller step to get them to see Chuk Iwuji in Henry VI,” he says. But as Iwuji, himself, points out, despite the progress that has been made – both in terms of actors and audiences – the fact that he is still having this conversation in 2008 means that much more still needs to be done.