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Home › Explore the Archive › Browse › Period › Period: 1970's

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  • Anansi and Brer Englishman 1972
  • Anansi and the Strawberry Queen 1974
  • Another Tuesday 1978
  • As Time Goes By 1971
    Mustapha Matura’s first full-length play, As Time Goes By won the George Devine and John Whiting awards in 1971. A satirical comedy about...
  • Black Women, The 1978
    The Black Women explores the lonely, alienated lives of African American women in New York.
  • Come Jubilee 1977
  • Give the Gaffers Time to Love you 1973
  • Indian 1970
    Indian is an entertaining slice of life set in a West Indian pad near Westbourne Grove, London.
  • Island, The 1973
    Two political prisoners in the Robben Island maximum security prison perform lengthy backbreaking mimes. Part of A South African Season.
  • Jero's Metamorphosis 1974
  • Masada 1978
  • More More 1978
  • My Enemy 1970
    My Enemy shows the attempts of a white MP to verbally destroy a Black Power leader who is having an affair with his daughter.
  • On The Out 1977
  • Pantomime 1978
    Pantomine is a fast pace comedy set on the Caribbean island of Tobago. In the hope of entertaining future guests, an English Hotel owner...
  • Say Hallelujah 1977
    Say Hallelujah is a comedy set around the domestic and religious exploits of a long suffering easy going West Indian grocer and his...
  • School Leaver, The 1978
    'The School Leaver is about a young black man in the last year of his school. He finds staying on futile and decides to leave and earn a...
  • School's Out 1975
    The play follows new idealistic headteacher Russ Dacres' doomed efforts to turn the school into a new centre for learning.
  • Teresa 1979
    Alton Kumalo's main protagonist Teresa, finds herself trapped between the conflicting cultures of her native Zambia and the English...
  • Throne in an Autumn Room 1979
  • Voices of the Living Dead 1973
  • Dialogue 1970
    An episode, which obliquely shows the dangers for black people of succumbing to society's mad desire for consumer goods and forgetting...
  • Party 1970
  • Bakerloo Line 1972
    A black man meets a white woman at a liberal party in London.
  • 11 Josephine House 1972
    A black family are trying to adjust to the temptations of English Life; a black preacher falls from grace.
  • Black By Night 1972
  • Gbana Bendu 1973
  • Nice 1973
  • Sweet Talk 1973
    Set in a single room whose walls define its characters' lives, Sweet Talk, the most widely performed of Michael Abbensetts' plays, is a...
  • The Bacchae 1973
  • Sizwe Bansi is Dead 1973
    Sizwe Bansi is Dead written collaboratively with South African actors John Kani and Winston Ntshona explores the dehumanising treatment...
  • Body and Soul 1974
  • Storm Baby, A 1974
  • Play Mas 1974
    Play Mas recreates the impact of the heady political momentum generated by the People's National Movement in Trinidad in the early...
  • X 1974
  • Swamp Dweller's, The 1975
  • Death of a Black Man, The 1975
  • Black Slaves - White Chains 1975
  • Sherry and Wine 1976
  • Parcel Post 1976
    A supposed virgin bride travels from Africa to join the bridegroom in London. All they know of each other is from photographs.
  • Bread 1976
  • Rum an' Coca Cola 1976
  • Short Sleeves in the Summer 1977
  • Lament for Rastafari 1977
    A vast historical and geographical panorama of the trials of Rastafarian life. Set in Jamaica, New York and England, the play begins with...
  • Return To My Native land 1977
  • Alterations 1978
    Alterations is a comedy set in a tailor's shop, inspired by a real visit to a small room off Carnaby Street where two black tailors had...
  • Independence 1979
  • Mister Biko 1979
  • Welcome Home Jacko 1979
    Welcome Home Jacko was inspired by a visit Matura made to a youth club in Sheffield in the 1970s. The play examines the lives of four...
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