Writer of new play Off The Endz Bola Agbaje talks to Naima Khan about perpetuating stereotypes and a commonly perceived victim mentality.
Off The Endz is currently playing at that hot house of controversial productions, Royal Court Theatre. It's depiction of ex-con David and his attempt to make his dreams come true through dirty dealing while staying at the home of his now upstanding childhood friends Sharon and Kojo has sparked hot debate over so called 'black theatre'. Playwright Bola Agbaje gives us her view...
What inspired the story and the characters?
It was a mixture of people that I know and my anger towards people who have excuses for things. When it’s constantly somebody else’s fault their life isn’t great or why they’re doing something wrong . I’d heard that so much, I had so much anger about it so I decided to write about it. It was about exploring the reason why some young guys feel like they have to go out and be drug dealers and what the excuses are.
The two characters that I was most interested in were David and Kojo. It’s about the polar opposites. They both have the same goal but have very different ways of getting it. I have friends who are hard working and they never stop trying to get what they want to get. But they also have friends, who are trying to drag them back down. Not everyone roots for you when you’re trying to do something good with your life.
I hate using the word I'm about to use but critics have argued that your representation of working class black people in London, perpetuates a “ghetto” stereotype. What do you think about the representation of black people in theatre?
As sad as it is there are actually people that are like these characters. So there’s this argument that ‘oh you’re creating a stereotype you’re creating characters that don’t necessarily exist or your heightening them’ but I’m not! The things they say, those are the things I’ve heard people say. They are real explanations for the reasons they do things. So as silly as it sounds and as heightened as people may think it is, it’s not a stereotype. I’m not going to shy away from it because it’s going to offend a black person from a middle class background who’s like ‘my friends are going to think that we’re all the same’; I don’t think people at the theatre are going generalise like that.
What comes across in the play is an understanding between the characters that in order to be successful in their corporate work place they have to work harder than most. To what degree would you say this is a race issue?
It’s a mixture. Kojo feels that in order to step out of the box so to speak, he needs to become something else, he needs to go up the social ladder. It’s more about the fact that because he wants this so much he knows he’s got to put in the work to get it.
But it also is a race issue, it is. In order to get somewhere, you’ve got to either step out of the box or be completely unique or you’ve got to put in ten times more work.
Because people from minority groups often find themselves representing the whole of that group?
Right, I had a debate the other day where I said to the person ‘are you saying to me I’ve got to a certain point in my life where I’m not allowed to actually be me anymore? I have to change the way that I speak? I have to pretend I could’ve gone to Oxford or Cambridge so that I will be a role model? So that the black middle class can say ‘oh yes we relate to that’? I am who I am and I’ve got to where I am because of who I am.
There is a feeling that the black community have, that to progress, to move up the ladder you can’t be you. You can’t come from an estate and speak a certain way and try and step into the middle class bracket because once you try and do that ‘oh no we don’t want you here, you need to be smarter now you need to speak differently, dress differently’. It’s the reason that young kids today relate to drug dealers, musicians and sports stars. They don’t have to change who they are in order to be accepted in those new social circles.
What would you say to those who suggest this play has been written with a ‘victim mentality’?
I think that these people didn’t watch the show properly! The ending for example, it’s quite an abrupt ending. I wasn’t trying to a) glamorise the life that David is living and b) I wasn’t trying to say that oh here is a character who’s going to change his life around, he’s going to be good and live happily ever after because 70% of the time people that live the lifestyle that David lives don’t have a happy ending. So it’s not a victim, it’s not a play that’s complaining. So people who come away saying oh it’s written with a victim mentality, they just haven’t opened their eyes to the story.
Off the Endz runs at Royal Court Theatre until 13.03.10 click here to read the review.
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