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Dateline: 4th August, 2002 Talawa - Black Theatre in Britain The Key Game a new play by award-winning black writer Pat Cumper opens at the Riverside Studios on 4 October 2002 for a limited two week run. Set in a Victorian mental institution, The Key Game is a comically absurd Endgame where the medication of four black patients is slowly and painfully withdrawn and the havoc of clear-thinking unleashed. Emotional, territorial and outrageously loaded with testosterone, The Key Game is Talawa's most subversive play to date, running the gamut of the black male experience in an institution under systematic destruction where a common key is the way out. The Key Game is another exuberant example in a long line of Talawa productions, and sets another step towards Talawa's mission to enrich British Theatre with black culture. Talawa Theatre Company was formed over 16 years ago and is one of the few surviving black companies from that time. It has been producing award-winning plays from and about the Black diaspora and has championed ground-breaking reinterpretations of classical British pieces. In addition to their body of work, Talawa are to set another milestone for black theatre in the UK. Talawa has been awarded a £3.6 million Lottery grant by the Arts Council and the Millenium Commission to build a state-of-the-art facility in Victoria, on the site of the old Westminster Theatre is located on Palace Street, near Victoria Station in London. It will provide for a 270-seat, fully flexible auditorium, a café, rooms for rehearsal and education, an archive and, most importantly, a place for Black talent to develop and flourish.. Talawa's new theatre will become the first major Black-led arts institution in central London, bringing Black culture into the mainstream of British society a landmark achievement. Talawa expects to have four productions annually, starting next year with a re-staging of its festive seasonal musical Itsy Bitsy Spider (Anansi steals the Wind) owing to the overwhelming audience response at the Queen Elisabeth Hall in January. Talawa will also produce Thirty Years of Black Theatre a repertory restaging of three critically acclaimed black British plays from the decades of the 70s, 80s and 90s respectively. This exciting season is set for May/June 2003. The new building, however, will not serve Talawa Theatre Company alone. Companies working in other parts of London, the UK and abroad will be invited to mount productions in the theatre, and new companies will be given the opportunity to showcase their work. This will create an international powerhouse for Black Theatre something that does not currently exist in Britain or Europe. Despite receiving a significant amount of funding, Talawa still needs to raise an additional £1.8 million. To help raise these funds, Talawa will host a special fundraising gala for The Key Game in the week commencing14 October (dates will be confirmed later). The Key Game opens at the Riverside Studios on 4 October 2002, following previews from the 3 October. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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