Revealed at Belgrade Theatre Coventry

Post

Subscribe

Fri 18 Oct 2024 - Sat 02 Nov 2024

During a night of riots in Handsworth, three men hide in their Caribbean restaurant. And while danger lurks outside, teenage son Luther, father Malcolm and grandfather Sidney discover that sometimes the crisis lies closer to home.

Thrown together for one night, they realise how much pain and hurt but also love can exist in one family.



The play’s title Revealed says it all and Birmingham writer Daniel J Carver, who also plays Malcolm in the show at Belgrade Theatre Coventry from October 18, says it is silence which can be the most damaging. “The play came out of the question ‘what do black men think and feel but don’t say?’” says Daniel. “It’s the notion of love and connection with those you find it hard to love, masculinity and how we approach family especially when there’s chaos happening around us.”

And, the layers unpick as the show progresses. “We’re looking at those three generations and their life experiences and the way they don’t communicate is very important to me because in the words unspoken there’s a lot of sub-text, a lot of anger, a lot of pain, a lot of trauma. As a family they are not communicating these things – and that’s what makes it a drama. I want the audience to think that if they’d just said these things, communicated them, it would have been a lot different.”

The story is set against street riots in Handsworth, where Daniel grew up, which have followed an incident involving a young black man in police custody. “I was very interested in racial injustice because of experiencing racism myself,” he says. “I thought what would it mean for this family in the UK if it was to be living out racial injustice, if a young black man was to get beaten up in police custody? That’s the stimulus to lead us into these three black generations of men and their thoughts, fears and experiences and how they navigate that as a family.”



Researching the work, Daniel spoke to young men in prison and discovered that very often fractured family relationships were part of their life experience. “I’ve seen the Luthers and I’ve seen the Malcolms and I’ve seen the Sidneys in prison and I’ve spoken to these men and heard their stories and one through line that always permeates these kinds of conversations is the lack of a father figure, the lack of a role model, the pain and the anger and the hurt that drives that behaviour.”

Revealed was first staged in 2019 at Midlands Arts Centre for two performances of research and development. It was directed Jay Zorenti-Nakhid, who also directed the show at Bristol’s Tobacco Factory in 2022 and now, as Belgrade’s associate director, he is keen to bring the story to Coventry. “It’s very rare that you read a script and think I’m connected to this. It was so human and such well-written characters about big things,” says Jay, who grew up in Kings Heath in Birmingham. “I’m really drawn to theatre that activates people, I’m not saying everything has to be political, you can activate people for joy, for love, and this show will make you think about your own actions and other people’s actions. It will make you go and call your sister, brother, uncle who you haven’t spoken to in a bit and say ‘I love you’.”

Revealed certainly spoke to Jay in that way as the first time he saw the play it prompted him to try and find the father he had never known. “I grew up not knowing my biological dad and the only conversations I’d had with my mom about it was when I was nine. My mom gave me a letter and told me about my heritage, my dad was from Trinidad, and he’s left this letter for you – and we didn’t speak about it ever again.”

But that letter was not forgotten. “Over the years you build up these narratives about rejection and abandonment, all of these issues that sit with you as a human and as a man who wanted to connect with his dad but never had the means to do it. But after this play I thought I don’t want to do what these men are doing so I’m going to ask my mom for the letter and it was like a love letter to me which completely blew out all my expectations and really changed my perspective.”

Jay found his father on Facebook – and learned his dad had made numerous attempts to find his son. As they reconnected, they also discovered an amazing coincidence – Jay’s father was a keen theatre fan who had been at the Revealed staging at Mac, without realizing his son was the director!

Jay says: “He was sat in the same room as me unknown to both of us watching this piece of theatre which made me track him down,” says Jay. “We have a really good relationship now and it all stems from theatre which is why I’m so passionate about theatre which activates people. It’s the power of story, when you put a story in front of people it can encourage people to share stories and act.”

The team hope the show will evoke responses from other audience members. “What people are going to take from this is the importance of family, that is the universal in this show,” says Jay. “There will be members of all communities who will be able to see themselves in the show - it overtakes race, creed, gender, there’s things we can all take from it. We hope it will give them a feeling of activation, how do we express love to those we find the hardest to love? I think we can all relate to that, we all have our own contexts.”

Belgrade Theatre Coventry stages Revealed from Oct 18 to Nov 2, see here for more information and tickets.

%wnbirmingham

#theatre_shows
#arts_culture