Black playwright Bonnie Greer writes 'BNP: The Opera'
Bonnie Greer described sitting next to Nick Griffin on Question Time as "probably the weirdest and most creepy experience of my life". Mandrake can disclose that it has, however, proved inspirational for the American-born playwright, who is planning to stage an opera about the rise of the British National Party.

By Richard Eden
Published: 11:00PM GMT 28 Nov 2009

"It's a modern opera because the country is an opera," she told me at the launch of her book Obama Music, at the Sanctum Soho Hotel, in London. "It's a conglomeration of voices. The people are speaking and the people are singing."

The 61-year-old author, who is married to a British solicitor-turned-teacher, David Hutchins, said she was involved in discussions with the Royal Opera House about staging her planned work. "I'm talking to ROH2 to see if they're interested," she said.

Greer said her appearance on the controversial edition of the BBC programme, which achieved a record figure of more than eight million viewers, had transformed her life. "It's been a whirlwind," she said.

"My life has just changed. I've been a pretty solitary person, and since then I've been walking down the street and people are talking to me. I have just been on a television programme that I do once a year, and it meant so much to people. I feel so humble."

The BBC was criticised for inviting the BNP leader to appear on the panel of its flagship political discussion programme, but Greer said Mark Thompson, the director-general of the corporation, made the correct decision.

Full Story :- Black playwright Bonnie Greer writes 'BNP: The Opera' - Telegraph

She got a white man... might of known..Ill stay far from anything she promotes in the future.

...it would be interesting to actually see what this play is like first before comment is past, no ?

(and i should have known that it wouldn't have taken long for some one to make that an issue) .... not too long ago brother kunjufu started a post in which it talked about marrying someone that doesn't look like you and still fighting for black causes, or words to that effect.

Greer's career is stippled with actions and effects that have have contributed in a major way to the 'black arts' in the u.k.

being at one point director of talawa one of the u.k's most prominant BLACK THEATRES writing plays that focus on black women Munda Negra (1993) ] and a writer of several books written about black issues , and a commentator about the lack of black faces in the arts , to name a few of her accomplishments.

but clearly she's not black enough for you ...

p.s. perhapes comment should be reserved until the play has actually been created and then seen ? ??

Im not interested in opera. Not in the slightest. It jars my spirit. And this is my problem with people like Bonnnie Greer. To them the black arts seems to be black versions of European arts. Oh lets have a 'black' opera. Oh lets do a black West End musical..oh where are the black artists painting abstract lines on a canvas that mean nothing except to art critics with their nose up their arses.

"The Talawa Theatre Company was founded in London in 1985 by Jamaican born Yvonne Brewster, Mona Hammond, Carmen Munroe and Inigo Espejel, becoming the UK's most prominent black theatre company. It has produced award-winning plays from and about the African diaspora and has championed reinterpretations of classical British pieces."

I put in that bit about the Talawa theatre because it illustrates my position. Im sick of black people re-interpreting European culture and aping it. It lacks originality, and is no different from these fake black Barbie dolls which have also been re-interpretated. Who cares if there is a black version of Romeo and Juliet. Why should there be a black version? Why cant we just apprecite R&J for what it is and create something original that will stand the test of time.

Sorry she aint my cup of tea. And her having a white man makes perfect sense and lends strength to her wish for more black apes of European culture.

She and her opera about the BNP can go to hell.

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She and her opera about the BNP can go to hell.[/color][/quote]


some years ago i watched a production in london-southbank by the talawa theatre company called 'anansi steals the sun' ( or atleast thats what the plot was about ) most of the performers were straight-outta-africa, not african americans or afro carribs, but west africans talawa does a very wide range of productions from reinterpretations of classic shakesperian texts , to african folktales...perhapes if you did a little bit more research you'd know that.

and i make the point again whats the point of condeming something that has not even been made yet ?

some years ago i watched a production in london-southbank by the talawa theatre company called 'anansi steals the sun' ( or atleast thats what the plot was about ) most of the performers were straight-outta-africa, not african americans or afro carribs, but west africans

Whether they were South Western Africans ot Afro Brazillians what relevance is that to the discussion. Im confused..


talawa does a very wide range of productions from reinterpretations of classic shakesperian texts , to african folktales...perhapes if you did a little bit more research you'd know that.

Hey we little.. but we talawa..IThe African folk tales are all good.. but I dont subsribe to the first black man to wipe his arse with tissue paper mentality...so Talawa aren't all bad.. whats new?


and i make the point again whats the point of condeming something that has not even been made yet ?[/quote]

As I said Im not into opera.. and Id have as much interest in seeing anything about the BNP as I would seeing a West End musical about the KKK. How is it going to inform me cultural /factually or politically what I already dont know....

This is obviously primarily for white consumption while satisying the requirements of a few emotionally needy black people, who need someone to chastise/ridicule/disect the BNP to feel good about themselves.

Not my cup of tea old chap. But knock yourself out if you want to get orgasmic about it..

I think I'd rather watch an episode of Coronation Street.

Yup.

I don’t know what its like for normal African folk other there with our nobel peace prize messiahtan pressie in the big chair, but here in the UK, many of us are tired of yes massa type kneegrows, begging for us, speaking for us, all whilst desperately trying to lead us round in circles singing we shall overcome.

A few days ago was the anniversary of our Ancestor, Rosa Parks stepping up to the system, and mashing it down. So now why have so many of us decided to voluntarily ride in the back?

A sista spending what creative energy she has left to make a play about the BNP. To produce cultural media based on our enemy. Is she just deliberately looking to promote them some more or is she simply that cheap?

That’s messed up.

Have we forgotten who we are, who they are?

Yesterday marked the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Fred Hampton. None of our TV channels, radio stations or newspapers covered it.

Anyhow big up Brooklyn Gal and you others for telling it like it is.

At least some of us are keeping that revolutionary spirit alive.

Perhaps someone will make a modern day revolutionary play about the Panthers.

We must never forget.

"The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther"