Blackta

(Paperback)

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Description

'Get, I'm getting outta here, man, I'm getting outta here, the lines getting blurred - it's blurred - that line between normality and madness is muffled... and rah, I'm getting urges, brov.' Welcome to the world's most unusual talent contest. Behind the scenes, competitors are laughing and brawling, parading their hopes and fears in front of each other, their loves and losses. But there's a bigger fight to be had on stage: who's going to win The black, the yellow or the brown guy This hilariously biting satire by Nathaniel Martello-White, directed by Young Vic Artistic Director, David Lan, exposes the highs and lows of making it as a black actor - a 'blackta'.

Reviews

If the white establishment views black people in sub-human terms, Martello-White does not. He has written detailed human parts with authentic, poetic voices, rooted in London...At its best, Blackta examines what it means to be a black male in modern Britain...David Lans production is edgy and unflinching. A sensitive balance is struck between comedy and despair. -- Alexander Gilmour * Financial Times *
Nathaniel Martello-Whites debut play is concerned with more than just the various hurdles faced by black actors; it also encompasses broader themes of race, identity and masculinity. The play rattles along, a little bit like Beckett on amphetamines, presenting a frantic hamster wheel world in which its characters - named for their skin tone: black, brown, yellow - are forever being tested...The play has a lot to say and for much of the time it does so with humour and verve -- Natasha Tripney * The Stage *
Nathaniel Martello-White's rambunctious writing debut begins as a satire about struggling British actors, but soon launches into a lacerating gallop through masculinity at bay ... his demotic writing is drenched in testosterone. Blackta is angry as a bagful of spanners. -- David Jays * The Sunday Times *
A sparky satire about the life of black British thesps Martello-White is excellent at demotic street dialogue and joshing banter -- Charles Spencer * Telegraph *
Martello-White's salty, realist dialogue has the unmistakeable tang of truth to it the unfairness of 'the thing' is spelled out powerfully in Martello-White's promising and original debut, which never has to preach to get its message across. -- Andrzej Lukowski * Time Out *
Crackling with the author's flair for producing street-wise demotic, edgy banter combining an acute ear for dialogue with a bold and eloquent visual concept, Blackta is a genuinely promising and original debut -- Paul Taylor * Independent *
Blackta is an assured and discomforting play, ricocheting between slangy chat, self-critical satire, searing rage, and fantasies. -- Kate Bassett * Independent on Sunday *
The play has many glories, not least its searing rhetoric, its unflinching honesty and its moments of sublime physical comedy ... This is not a parable of the acting profession or of some crushed racial minority. It's a story of everyday ambition, of life in the urban rat race, of perseverance triumphing over adversity. And it contains perhaps the finest, and funniest, speech about slavery I've heard. -- Lloyd Evans * Spectator *

Author Bio

Nathaniel Martello-White is a British actor and playwright. Best-known for his acting career, with credits including Joe Turner's Come And Gone and The Brothers Size at the Young Vic, as well as A Midsummer Night's Dream, City Madame, Marat/Sade (RSC), Innocence (Arcola) and Oxford Street (Royal Court), he has also written an anthology of poetry called A Western Nightmare. Blackta, Martello-White's first play, premiered at the Young Vic in 2012.