Book Launch and Talk by Dr Lynette Goddard (Royal Holloway): ‘Documenting Black British Theatre History:  Errol John’s Moon on a Rainbow Shawl’.

Hosted by the Centre for Contemporary British Theatre in collaboration with Black History Month. 

This event celebrated the publication of Lynette Goddard’s new book on Errol John’s Moon on a Rainbow Shawl (1958). This play was one of the first plays by a Black Caribbean playwright to be produced on the London stage and it has become the most revived black play in Britain - from its original production at the Royal Court in 1958, to the National Theatre in 2012. Moon on a Rainbow Shawl depicts the lives of a black community living in poverty in a shared tenement yard in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in the mid-1940s, showing how each of the characters carries dreams of escaping to create better lives for themselves and their families.

During the presentation, Lynette discussed their interest in the play as a representation of the migratory impulse that prompted many Caribbean people to uproot from their homes on the islands and move to England in the post-war era and their documenting of the play’s British production history in this book. The contemporary resonance and significance of the play was also discussed.

The talk was followed by a drinks reception.

Dr Lynette Goddard