Overview

For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy offers up the variegated experiences of young Black men in non-Black spaces. It works through a masterful weaving of poetry, music and movement, inviting audiences and readers to witness and empathize with the inner lives of every hue of young Black man. Originally inspired by Ntozake Shange's 1974 poem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow is Enuf, the play masterfully blends realism with poetic and imaginative elements, and visual with aural spectacle evident in the songs, dance sequences, poetry and dialogue, to create an original and richly textured piece of total theatre. It was first performed at the New Diorama, London, and was revived in the West End three times subsequently. The play is published here as a Student Edition alongside commentary and notes by Izuu Nwankwo, who interrogates the play's themes around Black masculinity, identity, community and survival; its use of theatrical form; space and setting; its six main characters; its multi-sensorial texture; and its deliberate absence of stage directions and the implications for performance. It also includes an original interview with Ryan Calais Cameron.

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9781350515246

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Reviews

""A powerful and deeply moving meditation on Black masculinity and Black life in Britain. But, underneath all the pain, there's an abundance of light, laughter and boyish energy too ... While the play could never be totally encompassing of all Black men's lives, Cameron has neatly stitched together a wealth of opposing, recognisable issues. At its core, the play asks how to play the role of the right kind of Black man. Tragic, vulnerable and honest, these are voices that are usually buried, but need to be heard ... The script is crucial, pressing poetry."" --Guardian ""Nothing in our theatre history has achieved what Ryan Calais Cameron's remarkable and poetic play achieves. In two and a half funny, touching and poignant hours it reveals what it is to be young, black, British and male."" --Jewish Chronicle ""Given the title there's a surprising amount of joy in Ryan Calais Cameron's play. It's a mosaic of young British black men's experience, often laugh-out-loud funny and physically exuberant, occasionally poetic, but with a recurring undertow of dread."" --Evening Standard

Author Information

Ryan Calais Cameron is a writer for theatre and TV. His plays include Typical, Queens of Sheba (co-written with Jessica Hagan and winner of the 2018 Edinburgh Untapped Award); Rhapsody (2018 Off West End Adopt A Playwright Award); For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy (nominated for a 2023 Olivier Award for Best New Play); and Retrograde (shortlisted for the 2019 Alfred Fagon Award and Verity Bargate Award 2020). He is an alumnus of the Royal Court writer's programme 2017 and the Soho Young Company 2016/17. Izuu Nwankwo is Assistant Professor in the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto, Canada. His research interests revolve around African and African diaspora theatre, performances and popular culture.

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