For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy

Taking a group therapy meeting as it’s premise, we follow the session through the experience of the six young black men to which the title refers – Jet, Obsidian, Onyx, Pitch, Midnight and Sable (their names cleverly all synonyms or associated with the colours black or dark brown).

Each character tells us their own unique story through dance, music, spoken word and/or poetry, stories of violence and of love, tales of heritage and history, of expectations and fears. ‘For Black Boys’ both exposes us to and asks us the question of what it means to be a young black man in modern Britain. There are times the show made me feel angry at others, sad but crucially this isn’t a depressing play, instead the darker elements of the stories are balanced with humour, lightness and positivity.