Prominent Black actors together with No Time to Die star Lashana Lynch and Enola Holmes’ Susan Wokoma have signed an open letter decrying the abuse confronted by Francesca Amewudah-Rivers after she was solid in a West End theatre manufacturing of Romeo & Juliet.
The Jamie Lloyd Company introduced final month that Amewudah-Rivers will play Juliet alongside Tom Holland‘s Romeo in the staging of William Shakespeare’s tragedy, which opens on the Duke of York’s Theatre on May 23.
The Guardian newspaper reported that 883 folks had supported the open letter, which was organized by Wokoma and author Somalia Nonyé Seaton. Signatories embrace Sheila Atim (The Woman King), Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Secrets & Lies), Lolly Adefope (Ghosts), Freema Agyeman (Doctor Who), Wunmi Mosaku (Damilola, Our Loved Boy), and Tamara Lawrance (Time).
“Too many times, Black performers – particularly Black actresses – are left to face the storm of online abuse after committing the crime of getting a job on their own,” the letter mentioned.
“The racist and misogynistic abuse directed at such a sweet soul has been too much to bear. For a casting announcement of a play to ignite such twisted ugly abuse is truly embarrassing for those so empty and barren in their own lives that they must meddle in hateful abuse.”
It added: “Too many occasions theatre corporations, broadcasters, producers and streamers have failed to supply any assist or assist when their Black artists face racist or misogynistic abuse. Reporting is just too typically left on the shoulders of the abused, who’re additionally then anticipated to advertise mentioned present.
“We want to send a clear message to Francesca and all Black women performers who face this kind of abuse – we see you. We see the art you manage to produce with not only the pressures that your white colleagues face but with the added traumatic hurdle of misogynoir.”
The Jamie Lloyd Company has spoken out in regards to the problem, publishing a press release that mentioned there had been a “barrage of deplorable racial abuse directed towards a member of company.” It added: “This must stop. We are working with a remarkable group of artists. We insist that they are free to create work without facing online harassment.”
Amewudah-Rivers beforehand appeared in two seasons of BBC collection Bad Education and three brief movies. She has stage expertise in productions on the Globe and Lyric Hammersmith amongst different venues. Amewudah-Rivers is repped by Curtis Brown.