This chapter examines the pinnacles of Black British theatre from the 1950s to the 2020s. It attempts to reconstruct the historiography of Black British theatre in a way that emphasises Black practitioners who wielded agency in hostile environments and contributed to reconfiguring what it means to work in British theatre. It builds on existing scholarship that acknowledges the social, political, and economic issues faced by the theatre industry to offer an analysis of how issues of belonging and nation are reflected in work produced. It traces the key historical trajectories of Black British theatre over three generations organised by similar concerns rather than time periods. It begins exploring the first generation of Black playwrights and the impact of the written play text. Its examination of the second generation acknowledges the development of Black theatre companies in the 1980s, focusing on the role state subsidy played in these companies’ deeply uneven longevity. Lastly, its focus on the third generation explores the structural changes pursued by Black makers, performers, directors, designers, producers, and audiences that demand that we renegotiate what is invoked by ‘Black British theatre’.

Although major playwrights such as Derek Walcott, Wole Soyinka, or Errol John had early work staged at the Royal Court in London in the 1950s and 1960s, it was a later generation – Mustapha Matura, Michael Abbensetts, Winsome Pinnock, or Hanif Kureishi – whose works first began to stake the new and home-grown territory of black and Asian Britain, offering new, polyphonic themes, and drawing new audiences. Yvonne Brewster, stage director, teacher, writer, and founder of theatre company Talawa, and several female playwrights – debbie tucker green, Zindika, and Bernardine Evaristo – were equally active, forming influential collectives and exploring a non-naturalist approach to subvert rigid stereotypes of race and the black female body. This chapter examines the theatre landscape since the 1980s by focusing on the genesis of specific companies, collectives, and productions to show how these different initiatives sought to articulate their positionalities and navigate the politics of the time. The chapter also relies upon archival resources including theatre and production history.