7/10/19 (Wed)

I’ve previously written about the ethnic diversity in London theater here and here, including my impression that certain ethnicities appear on stage far too often to be blind casting or coincidental. Now there are statistics to back that up. Research by British theater magazine The Stage finds that black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) performers account for 38% of musical performers as of April 2019, starkly higher than their 13% ratio of the UK population.

Black performers in particular account for 31.7% of all musical roles (i.e., 85% of the BAME total) despite being only 3% of the UK population. East and South Asians, who significantly outnumber blacks in the general population (7%), account together for only 3.7% of West End musical performers. The percentage for white actors is 62.2% (87.1% of general population) and other ethnicities 2.2%.

So the diversity problem is solved at least for black performers, right? Of course not, you insensitive hick. The article quotes a black performer as complaining that BAME actors are not featured in enough “prominent” roles. “While I embrace conversations about inclusion and diversity,” he says, “they have yet to become real or visible on our stages and screens.” In other words, despite a number more than ten times higher than their percentage of the population, there are still not enough black performers on stage, and there never will be. The survey does not cover straight plays, but observation in my random trips to London suggests that those numbers are similarly high, especially at the National and Globe, where black leads in recent years include, off the top of my head, Hamlet, Macbeth, Amadeus, Henry V and Antony & Cleopatra, along with black-themed shows like Small Island and Barber Shop Chronicles. (In a similar vein, the UK Times observed recently that an even higher 37% of television commercials featured black actors, but “just 28% of black and minority ethnic individuals thought they were well represented”. It opined, “Many brands are now trying too hard to demonstrate diversity by shoehorning in minority faces” in what it calls a “‘one black friend’ approach”.)

The UK seems to have adopted the US guilt complex over blacks despite a starkly different history. South Asians have played a much bigger part in the UK’s past and are far more numerous in the population, but are nowhere near as ubiquitous on stage in terms of nontraditional casting. Maybe the latter are more comfortable in their skins.

Yes, I know that performers are not who they’re pretending to be and that we’re supposed to accept that these are just people playing a role. But I’ll believe that when someone casts me as a six-foot hunk. I recall an incident related by one critic where the character in the story was supposed to be well endowed and the naked actor was, let’s say, substantially short of the goal. More seriously, I get a nagging feeling that, while suspension of belief is fine in theory, ignoring what’s in front of our eyes is denying the basic humanity of the people on stage, who are playing in virtual whiteface. I imagine that ethnic audiences may feel the same.

The biggest irritant, as I’ve noted in the past, is the painful talent gap among many black performers, suggesting that a good number are being cast for reasons other than their acting skills. That is a disservice to other better qualified actors as well as those of us in the audience paying West End prices for less-than-West-End performances. And it does no favor to the actors beyond their paychecks, as it suggests they’re being paternally shoehorned into roles for some social good.

The real issue is lack of diversity in the audience, which remains overwhelmingly white. A nationwide survey reported in the same magazine in 2016 showed whites at 92% of UK audiences, Asians at 3.2% and blacks at 1% (though it claims to have found a better balance among younger viewers). That imbalance holds true even for ethnic-oriented shows. Look at those figures again: in the case of the black segment, over 30% of the stage is black versus only 1% of the audience. Who is this benefiting? I imagine cost is one issue for ethnic would-be audiences, but given the number of affordable ticket options at least off the West End, I suspect there’s a cultural element as well. If producers and well-meaning others really want more diversity on stage, they can start with nurturing a theater-going habit among a wider range of individuals, beginning ideally in primary schools. That could increase the demand for more diverse fare, which would solve the problem organically.

Another obvious solution that suggests itself is for ethnic performers to produce their own shows. That would allow them to cast themselves however they would like and promote diversity on their own terms, both in material and roles. But I’m not holding my breath.

Efforts to diversify the stage should start behind it (producers) and in front of it (audiences). Forcing the audience to pretend, literally, that black is white dehumanizes those on stage, as if blacks only have meaning when they turn Caucasian. Hard to see that as a healthy situation.

P.S. An update.