8 hundred Black performers signed a letter of guidance for Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, who is starring along with Tom Holland in the Jamie Lloyd Company’s manufacturing of Romeo & Juliet, which operates from May possibly 11 by means of August 3 at Duke of York’s Theatre in London. Amewudah-Rivers is established to engage in Juliet in the generation, together with Holland as Romeo, and has been given a torrent of abuse on line since the casting was released. “For a casting announcement of a play to ignite these types of twisted unattractive abuse is really embarrassing for individuals so vacant and barren in their personal life that they have to meddle in hateful abuse,” the letter, which was organized by Susan Wokoma (Taskmaster, Enola Holmes) and playwright Somalia Nonyé Seaton (Slide of the Kingdom, Increase of the Footsoldier), says. “Too several occasions Black performers — particularly Black actresses — are still left to deal with the storm of on the net abuse after committing the criminal offense of obtaining a job on their own.”
Signees of the letter, which was originally printed in the Guardian, include things like Lashana Lynch (The Lady King), Lolly Adefope (Shrill), and Sheila Atim (Underground Railroad). It follows a assertion from the Jamie Lloyd Corporation, which did not reference Amewudah-Rivers by name. “Following the announcement of our Romeo & Juliet cast, there has been a barrage of deplorable racial abuse online directed towards a member of our corporation,” the assertion examine. “This ought to halt.”
