UK play lands award named for J’can boxing champ, poet

LONDON:

Harry Mould’s play ‘ The Brenda Line’ has been announced as the winner of the 29th Alfred Fagon Award which was handed out at the Dorfman Theatre inside the National Theatre in London’s South Bank on Friday, December 5.

Named the Best New Play of the Year, The Brenda Line is about a group of workers at the Samaritans Help Line which is described by Harry Mould as “a journey into morality, cross-generational feminism, masculinity, loneliness and sex, community, empathy and love. Really, it’s a love letter.”

Mould dedicated the award to her grandmother who she says was the inspiration for her writing the play.

She said: “I was so proud to be longlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award alongside such brilliant talents, so winning is a surreal delight. The Brenda Line is my first play, and to have it recognised in such a way, by an award I’ve followed for years, is a real honour and a vote of confidence that’s already had such a huge and vital impact on me as an emerging writer.

“My Nan, who loosely inspired the play and greatly inspires me, was born not far from Alfred Fagon in Jamaica, and I’m thankful to have the opportunity to dedicate this award to her.” She was presented with the Afred Fagon Award by renowned playwright Winsome Pinnock.

Daniel Bailey, chair of the judges said: “The Brenda Line teaches us something about ourselves, and questions our moral compass page after page. We come out changed as do the characters by this most unlikely friendship. An intergenerational tug-of-war that actually gives us hope for a future despite being set in a past where we looked after each other, in more ways than one.”

For the second major presentation on the day, Thea Melton’s play ‘ Blaxit Means Blaxit’ won the fifth Mustapha Matura Award and Mentoring Programme.

The award was presented by Ingrid Selberg from the Estate of Mustapha Matura who said: “Blaxit Means Blaxit is a satirical, but thoughtful, exploration of young Black Brits re-evaluating their place in the land they call home, through a range of different characters. The writing is funny and sharp, the storytelling bold but also very relatable and certainly topical.

“Blaxit Means Blaxit shows the talent and the promise of Thea Melton as a playwright, and we are delighted to be presenting her this year’s Mustapha Matura Award and Mentoring Programme.”

Melton responded: “I am so honoured and grateful to be the recipient of the Mustapha Matura Award this year. This has been so encouraging and a massive confidence boost for me to keep writing but also platform my work.

“I am excited to receive guidance from my mentor who can help nurture and expand my craft as a playwright but also equip me with the skills to navigate the industry. Thank you to everyone involved in organising the award. This is a life changing opportunity and I cannot wait to see where it takes me.”

The third award presented on the day, the Roland Rees Bursary, went to Amahra Spence who said the award will reinvigorate her zeal for playwriting.

Spence said: “I have spent most of my working life building infrastructure and creating opportunities for other Black artists, writers and creators. But writing was always my first love and I’m often stealing moments to write around the fullness of life, community organising and motherhood.

“With the Roland Rees Bursary, I can write. I can gift myself time. I can continue in the lineage of black writers who bring about new worlds in which we get to exist in our wholeness. To be recognised by my peers and enabled to do this is the honour of a lifetime.”

The Alfred Fagon Award was founded by the late Yvonne Brewster OBE, Oscar James, Roland Rees and Sheelagh Killeen Rees, and Paul Stephenson OBE. It is now a registered charity.

It was named after Alfred Fagon who lived in Clarendon Jamaica, Nottingham, Bristol and London. He was a boxing champion, a welder, an actor, poet, and playwright.

After his untimely death in 1986 his friends held a memorial evening at Tricycle Theatre in London to commemorate his life and work. The donations collected at the memorial formed the basis of the Alfred Fagon Award to recognise Black British playwrights from the Caribbean.

The first award was supported by Arts Council England and The Peggy Ramsay Foundation which continues to support the Award by donating to the prize money to the winning writer.

Before the awards presentation on December 5, special tributes were paid to founding member Yvonne Brewster OBE who passed away in October. These came from James St Ville, chair of the Alfred Fagon Award; Pat Cumper, former artistic director of Talawa Theatre Company; Michael Buffong, the current artistic director; and Olusola Oyeleye, trustee of the Alfred Fagon Award.