Beneatha’s Place

Kwame Kwei-Armah OBE is British actor, playwright, director, singer and broadcaster. In 2018 he was made Artistic Director of the Young Vic Theatre, where he has directed Twelfth Night and Tree. From 2011 to 2018 he was the Artistic Director of Baltimore Center Stage, where his directing credits include: Jazz, Marley, One Night in Miami, Amadeus and Dance of the Holy Ghosts. As a playwright his credits include Tree (Manchester International Festival, Young Vic), One Love (Birmingham Repertory Theatre), Beneatha’s Place (Baltimore Center Stage, Young Vic) Elmina’s Kitchen, Fix Up, Statement of Regret (National Theatre), Let There Be Love and Seize the Day (Tricycle Theatre). He has also co-authored Decolonizing the Theatre Space (2023) and written the play Elmina's Kitchen.Oladipo 'Dipo' Agboluaje is a British-Nigerian playwright and academic, born in London and educated in Britain and Nigeria. He studied Theatre Arts at the University of Benin, Nigeria, and later wrote a doctoral thesis at the Open University, UK, on West and South African drama. He won the Alfred Fagon prize for playwriting for his play Iya-lle and is a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund, working in partnership with the University of East London, UK. He has written the commentary and notes to the Methuen Drama Student Edition of Inua Ellams's Barber Shop Chronicles (Bloomsbury, 2021).

A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry’s landmark 1959 play, ends with its most optimistic character considering leaving the US with her Nigerian suitor, finding identity in an independent Africa. In his drama, Kwame Kwei-Armah takes Beneatha ... to Lagos – only to find colonialism’s enmeshed tentacles difficult to clear ... If Hansberry’s play is about ownership – whether Black Americans have a stake in the American dream – then Kwei-Armah’s concerns legacy: the persistent effects of colonialism and how Black thinkers can shape the future.

• ChronologyContexts - historical & political (1950s America, post-independence politics in Africa, pan-Africanism; Black Lives Matter) and literary (Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun; Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park; Wole Soyinka's A Dance of Forests; and The Dilemma of a Ghost by Ama Ata Aidoo)Themes (gender; race; decolonization; critical race theory; culture wars)LanguageStructureDramatic devices (lighting, sound, costume, scenography) Play in production (critical responses, comparison of Baltimore and London productions)Interviews (Kwame Kwei-Armah and Cherelle Skeete) BENEATHA'S PLACENotes