Statement of Regret

a new play by Kwame Kwei-Armah

Kwaku Mackenzie, founder of a Black policy think tank, hits the bottle after his father's death. As media interest in the once dynamic Institute fades, his team grows fractious and then, disastrously, he favours a young Oxford scholar over his own devastated son. When, in a vain attempt to regain influence, he publicly champions division within the Black community, the consequences are shattering.

Are you afraid that a little white man lurks beneath that deep chocolate skin? Yes, that's your story isn't it? You're really a little coconut parading as radical black intellectual.

Kwame Kwei-Armah's third play for the National takes a punchy, provocative look at the Black British experience and the need, or not, for solidarity.

This is how they got us to sell each other in the first place… told one tribe they were better than the other.

Until 6 February.

Watch the film below of Kwame Kwei-Armah talking about his work.

photo (Don Warrington) by Hugo Glendinning