but i cd only whisper – interview with director Nadia Latif

But i cd only whisper in rehearsal. Photograph: Richrd Davenport

After a summer of building work, the Arcola’s all new Studio 2 is set to be unveiled with the première of a new play by Kristiana Colón.

but i cd only whisper addresses the stigmatisation and under-treatment of mental illness in black communities. Set in 1970s America, it tells the story of traumatised black Vietnam War veteran Beau Willie Brown who has been arrested for a horrific crime.

The play is inspired by the work of the black feminist writer Ntozake Shange, and the character of Brown first appeared in Shange’s experimental poem For Coloured Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf.

Director Nadia Latif explains:  “Beau Willie Brown just gets referenced in this one tiny paragraph, but the great thing about him is that he’s a snapshot of the era and of what it was like to be young, black and disenfranchised in America during the sixties and seventies. Beau wouldn’t be out of place today, he’s someone who was told one thing all his life: that he’d never amount to anything. I think those things still happen – particularly in black communities – today.”

Whilst he is held in custody, Brown’s story comes to light, fleshed out through the echoes of machine guns, police sirens and chanted voices.

“The original poem was about being a black woman during that period in America,” says Latif. “But for me there was a feeling that the story wasn’t complete – I mean, what was the other side of the coin and what made Beau do what he did? It’s like the Wide Sargasso Sea thing of the crazy lady in the attic – exploring what brings people to make certain choices rather than just look at the result of that choice.”

When Beau Willie Brown returns home from Vietnam with post traumatic stress disorder, he’s unable to control his bouts of drunkenness and violence, but rather than presenting the character in a flat, demonising way, the play instead explores the stigmatisation of mental illness in certain parts of society.

“There’s a middle class understanding and acceptance of mental illness that it’s something you treat, but if you don’t have access to that treatment or the language with which to talk about it then it gets ignored,” adds Latif. “There are a huge amount of homeless people in L.A., for example, and a lot of them are just people who have fallen through the cracks of medical care. If you’re not given the means to treat a problem then it will manifest in the worst way possible.”

It is Latif’s concern that too many plays addressing issues in black culture seem stuck in the present day, ignoring the history of black cultural issues. She hopes that but i cd only whisper will go some way to addressing the balance and explore what she calls, “the ugly brutal truth of the crusade for black civil rights.”

“I do think there are quite a lot of plays about ‘estates in cities like yours’ and about what’s happening now, but it sort of doesn’t matter where you are because stories just happen,” she says. “People will draw their own parallels with the play. I think some will say it’s about young black men lacking father figures, or about single black mothers, while others will say, ‘this is about the army, let’s relate this to Afghanistan and Iraq’. I think the play has everything, it’s about love and interracial relationships and trying to get out of the situation that you’re in. Hopefully there’s something for everyone.”

but i cd only whisper
Till 1 December
Arcola Theatre
24 Ashwin Street
Dalston
E8 3DL
020 7503 1646