The Edinburgh Race Lectures: Representing Slavery in Contemporary Black British Women’s Plays

This talk explores how slavery’s past is represented in contemporary Black British women’s plays and performances. I outline the prevalence of plays depicting slavery in 2020 to consider how and why slavery is represented today before moving on to look at examples of plays that illustrate how Black women playwrights connect the past to the present by exploring important historical incidents with reference to contemporary concerns. I argue that contemporary Black British women playwrights bear witness to past atrocities and traumas while empowering Black women in their retellings of these stories in the present.