Theatre | The Guardian: At a pivotal point in his career, Giles Terera realised that the parts being offered to him as an actor of colour were not necessarily the ones he was interested in playing. “They went up to a certain level but I had other stories I wanted to tell, other lives I wanted to investigate,” he says.
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There is a sense of tokenization that affects all people who belong to oppressed groups working in theatre, particularly when those oppressed groups are race-based. Giles Terera says, "They went up to a certain level but I had other stories I wanted to tell, other lives I wanted to investigate", in terms of the roles he, an actor of colour, was given. Through his new work, The Meaning of Zong, Terera is writing a narrative that he feels empowered to share with audiences, share with other performers, and create himself. As he was researching the Zong massacre, he felt emotions of anger, sadness, injustice, but also joy. Work rooted in diversity, equity, and decolonization often results in very visceral feelings, not only from those experiencing the work but to a greater degree, those involved in the creation of decolonial work–or at the very least, work that challenges existing social and industry norms. Terera is expanding the canon and for it to be platformed at the Bristol Old Vic and beyond in the future, is very impressive and honestly an inspiration for me, as someone who wants to pursue similar stories that uplift oppressed voices and diversify the canon.
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