Four Black plays are on stage in Toronto right now — and it's not even Black History Month

21 years after its debut in Toronto, Djanet Sears's Governor General Award-winning play Harlem Duet is back on stage at the Tarragon Theatre. At the same time, three other productions written/adapted by and starring Black people are also being staged throughout the city.

This bears repeating: four Black plays are on stage in Toronto right now — and it's not even February (i.e. Black History Month).

In addition to Harlem Duet, which is a prelude to Shakespeare's Othello, there's Obsidian Theatre's Judas Noir, a Biblically inspired odyssey. Soulpepper is presenting Oraltorio: A Theatrical Mixtape, a deep dive into music of the African diaspora, and Mirvish's Ain't Too Proud is a musical biography of The Temptations — one of the most famous groups in the history of R&B.

This surprising cultural moment in the city inspired me to return to the published version of Harlem Duet which was released soon after the play's debut. In it, Sears wrote an intro entitled "Notes of a Coloured Girl: 32 Short Reasons Why I Write for the Theatre."

Using a few of her "Short Reasons" as my frame, I would like to explore what these four productions indicate about the state of Black theatre in Toronto today.

#17

Acting is a craft that I have been called to by my nature. Writing is a craft that I have chosen to nurture.

Black Canadian artists are frequently multihyphenates.

Leighton Alexander Williams is the director of Judas Noir. He wrote the script, adapting it from Stephen Adly Guirgis's play The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, and he also performs on stage as Satan. Sears is not only the writer of Harlem Duet, she's also the director of the current production. The two performers in Oraltorio, Motion and DJ L'Oqenz, are also its creators.

It could be argued that African storytelling traditions were always multidisciplinary, frequently incorporating music, poetry, dance and song, and so our contemporary practices retain this historic link. These artists are also undeniably multi-talented, and many have wanted to retain the ability to play multiple roles so as to retain control of their artistic vision or as an opportunity to grow in various ways.

However, it is also true that Black Canadian artists often find themselves simultaneously writing, directing, performing and producing for the theatre because the stories they want to tell are not being told, and the roles they want to play are not the ones they are invited to audition for. These skills are developed as a result of circumstance rather than passion.

A lack of resources, platforms and infrastructure for Black theatre leads to these artists wearing more than one hat so that they can see their ideas manifest. This was true when Sears wrote her introduction two decades ago, and it appears to still be true today.

#12

An old West African proverb states that, as a people, we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors.

The acknowledgement of ancestry and history and the weight it has on our contemporary narratives is a shared theme in several of the productions currently being staged.

Oraltorio is a coming-of-age story that breaks from the usual tropes. A time-travelling odyssey, we follow a b-girl who grows into herself by embarking on a journey through history. She invokes the griot storytellers, the blues women, the disco divas, the dancehall queens and Afrofuturistic digital voices to shape her epic aural adventure.

In Harlem Duet, Billie and Othello re-enact the same story in three different historical periods, each one beginning with their rousing love story but ending with Othello's betrayal as he chooses to leave her for Desdemona (a.k.a. Miss Dessy, a.k.a. Mona). Its repetition reminds the audience that we continue to tell this story over and over again because a Black woman and a Black man attempting to love each other will continue to be a feat of tremendous difficulty when they exist in a world that does not love them back.

Othello's monologues explaining why it's too complicated to love Billie, and how life has become easier with Mona, are painful in any era, invoking the immense baggage that comes with Black life. This was true during slavery, it was true in the 1920s and it continued to be true in the 1990s when the majority of the play takes place.

In Judas Noir, the Biblical tale of Judas continues when the future of his soul is argued over at a trial held in purgatory. But rather than languishing in the historical period documented in the Bible, references are made to contemporary issues such as police brutality, racial profiling and the Black Lives Matter movement. Connections are drawn between the Jews in the Bible and Black people living in North America today. Time is a loose concept, but in that flexibility, connections are drawn and parallels made.

#7

They must have access to a choir of African voices, chanting a multiplicity of experiences. One voice does not a chorus make. And I will not wait.

I'm not sure whether this plethora of Black theatre is a sign of progress or just a one-time anomaly. December may come with nary a Black actor to be found on a Toronto stage. However, what is exciting about this moment is not only the number of productions but also the generational diversity of their stories.

Ain't Too Proud is a sprawling Broadway-bound musical that promises to be a nostalgic trip down memory lane for baby boomers. A biographical musical inspired by The Temptations, it has the allure of timeless music mixed with tragedy: addictions, bad contracts, premature death.

Harlem Duet, although a much more contemporary play, has become a period piece that offers its own sense of nostalgia. Harlem is celebrated throughout the play as a Black oasis where African-American history and culture steeps its doorways and intersections, its very existence an affirmation.

However, in the two decades since the first production of the play, the neighbourhood has been rapidly gentrified with Whole Foods chains and new residents steadily eroding the Blackness that made it a mecca for so many. The play has become a love letter to a bygone era.

Oraltorio has the signature of Generation X. It's the Gen X'ers who created hip hop, who glorified the practice of crate digging. It is that reverence for knowing where you come from that informs so much of the show. It honours African diasporic music through the word and the turntable, two of the foundational pillars of hip hop.

Judas Noir is set at the crossroads between pop culture and the Bible — a perfect recipe for a millennial audience. The soundtrack bounces from Lady Gaga to Drake, saints are recast as dancehall queens, Satan can be found voguing and Pontius Pilate identifies as trans-racial. The play is a fascinating rabbit hole of cultural references that feels dedicated to a generation bombarded by information and influences.

#23

I have a dream. A dream that one day in the city where I live, at any given time of the year, I will be able to find at least one play that is filled with people who look like me, telling stories about me, my family, my friends, my community. For most people of European descent, this is a privilege taken for granted.

With the exception of Ain't Too Proud, the four plays on stage right now were originally written or adapted by a Black Canadian writer. It's a promising sign that theatre companies are interested and willing to stage works by creators who live in the country rather than simply flying in successful productions from overseas.

However, two of the plays are produced by Obsidian Theatre Company: Judas Noir and Oraltorio (a co-production with Soulpepper). Obsidian is one of the few Black theatre companies in Toronto. For years they have been a platform not only for Black stories but also for Black artists seeking support and mentorship. Obsidian does phenomenal work — but putting the weight of Black theatre on a single company is not a model for sustainability.

Until we have a plethora of companies invested in the development of Black theatre artists, the dream that Djanet Sears articulated a little more than two decades ago will continue to be just that.

Ain't Too Proud. To Nov. 17 at Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto. www.mirvish.com.

Harlem Duet. To Oct. 28 at Tarragon Theatre, Toronto. www.tarragontheatre.com.

Judas Noir. To Oct. 20 at Streetcar Crowsnest, Toronto. www.obsidiantheatre.com.

Oraltorio: A Theatrical Mixtape. To Oct. 20 at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto. www.soulpepper.ca.