At the Gates of Gaza - the forgotten story of West Indian soldiers
An extraordinary new play told from the point of view of West Indian soldiers fighting for the British Empire during the Great War comes to Birmingham Repertory Theatre this Autumn. At the Gates of Gaza is a gripping story brimming with rich and wonderfully written characters who come to life in this highly charged look through young eyes at a Britain in the midst of enormous cultural change.
Stranded in the battlefields of the Holy Land during the Great War, a battalion of West Indian volunteers fight for the Empire, King and the Mother Land. Their long search for belonging falls apart as the hopes of young lives, both black and white, explode and shatter as betrayal and race take their toil.
At the Gates of Gaza explores the experience of a young runaway boy trapped by a clash of identity, who desperately wants and needs to be heard. Instead of being sent to fight Germans in Europe with a local white regiment because of his mixed race he is sent to join the British West Indies regiment in Palestine. There he is forced to deal with the deadly consequences of his childish actions.
The outbreak of war saw a great response from the Empire's colonies governed from London. Eleven initial battalions were raised of several thousand West Indian men; all volunteers. The first detachment reached Britain in the autumn of 1915. For black people already living in Britain acceptance within the white military establishment was to cause a considerable amount of confusion.
This is a story that has waited nearly a century to be told. Set in the aftermath of the 1st World War it details the largely forgotten stories of Black British soldiers and veterans. They helped liberate the Empire but returned to the British Isles to terrible injustice.
Writer Juliet Gilkes Romero is also a television journalist reporting from countries including Ethiopia, Haiti and Cuba. For the stage her plays include Bilal al-Sudan (How Long Is Never?) at the Tricycle Theatre, a response to the conflict in the Sudanese region of Darfur, Diesel at the National Theatre, Brethren and Good Iago at Nottingham Playhouse.
The cast for At the Gates of Gaza includes local actor, Toyin Omari-Kinch (younger brother of leading jazz musician Soweto Kinch), Ben Bennett, Curtis Jay Cole, Fabian Spencer and Matthew Moxon.
Big Creative Ideas is a Midlands based theatre company committed to producing new, high quality, culturally diverse work. Set-up by Steven Luckie, former Eclispe Theatre producer, their work tours nationally. Their first production, Booty Call, a play created for young people, toured in Autumn 2006 to critical acclaim and introduced a new audience to the thrill of live theatre.
Listings Information
Thursday 2 October to Saturday 4 October
Performance Times: 7.00pm (Thu - Sat), plus matinee at 1.30pm on Thu 2 Oct
After Dark - free post-show discussion with the acting company: Fri 3 Oct
+ Permalink