Interview with playwright and beatboxer Testament on Black Men Walking, the craft of playwriting, and knowing your history
This interview originally appeared on Words of Colour Productions on 17/04/2018: https://bit.ly/2JTjgLF
Testament, aka Andy Brooks, is an acclaimed rapper and world record-holding beatboxer. His previous theatre credits include a play combining Hip Hop and William Blake and a new show called Woke. He is the author of Black Men Walking, a new play exploring Black British history which is currently selling out theatres across the UK. Words of Colour caught up with Testament to discuss Black Men Walking, his playwriting craft and the importance of knowing your history.
Interview by Heather Marks
Heather Marks: What is Black Men Walking about and what does it mean to you?
Testament: It’s a story following three black men as they go on a walk in the Peak District. The guys are from Sheffield and they probably should have cancelled the day, but each of them have things that they need to work through. As they walk the landscape, we hear about whose footsteps they are walking in from the past. We find out about Black British figures, hear their stories and see how they resonate with the play’s characters, in the present, and the issues they’re dealing with.
HM: What does Black Men Walking mean for British history?
T: There’s this whole thing of who tells us what history is and who controls the narrative. David Olusoga’s series was so important last year, showing us how there is a multiplicity of voices when it comes to telling history. It has opened up a treasure trove of voices which have been ignored for a long time. As a person of colour, I’ve had to buy into white heroes and white narratives, or find my own, whether that’s Shakespeare, Bruce Lee or Daley Thompson who was the only famous guy I saw who looked like me. It’s nice to look back to our history and learn black people were doing amazing things before the Anglo-Saxons. It’s also great that white people have the opportunity to buy into black narratives and say yes we are British, we are John Moore, we are Pablo Fanque as well as Shakespeare. That’s great in terms of having an identity and feeling confident, feeling ownership and feeling apart of. This play caught me at a great point in my life — I have children now and this play offers them a chance to celebrate their heritage and understand the beauty and complexity of where we come from.
HM: As a rapper, MC and beatboxer, what approach did you take to writing the text and researching the history?
T: As part of the commission from Eclipse Theatre Company, I had to go on walks with the real life Black Men Walking Group, which was wonderful. I got to see how their conversations worked,how they spoke to me and each other and what their dynamic was like. These are fiercely intelligent men having intense debates, sharing their life experiences and laughter. From there you start to invent your characters and hear their voices. After that it’s a matter of crafting, editing and all the brutal bits that come with writing.
In terms of conveying the history, that involved doing masses of research and embodying it; trying to imagine how I would convey this moment in time, and then giving it to the actors to breathe life into these figures. The lyrical aspect of the play really comes out in the spoken word. Regarding Ayeesha, the young female mc, and her poetry, she speaks in her natural idiom, which are bars. She has got that wit and humour, and even in terms of how her rhyme patterns work, she’s conveying who she is. When you’re playing as a performer, sometimes you have to choose the meaning, but because the play has been published as text, you can see the richness of these characters’ words. Hopefully that poetry stays with people.
HM: What has been the most memorable piece of black British history that you learned in your research?
T: “There were Africans in England before the English.” It’s the opening line of Peter Fryer’s book Staying Power and it knocked me sideways. That first line was incredible. I went out and I bought five copies straight off Amazon and sent them to family and friends immediately. It’s fascinating how all these things are being uncovered, and that it’s not just people of colour that are talking about it. I’m mixed heritage and my mum is Ghanaian, but African history is as much a part of my dad’s history — a white Londoner — because it’s a part of London’s history. We should be learning and celebrating each other’s stories.
HM: Why are plays like Black Men Walking important for everyone?
T: The more we find out about each other’s stories, histories and lives, the harder it is to ‘other’ other people. It’s harder to demonise people when you know the history. The more we share our stories, the more enlightened we all become. All of us have got to make the effort to get out of our comfort zones. I felt edified going on this process because you can see the reference points that make up who you are; it allows you to move forward in a more focused and aware way — Sankofa. These are reference points, not just for people of colour, but for everyone.
Black Men Walking is currently touring the UK until Saturday 28 April 2018. To find a venue near you, visit https://eclipsetheatre.org.uk/whats-on/1364-black-men-walking
To find out more about Testament, who is currently touring a new show Woke, visit http://testamenthomecut.com/
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