A show directed by Leeds Conservatoire Senior Lecturer Dermot Daly won the prestigious Lustrum Award for Unforgettable Theatre at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Designer Caitlin Mawhinney was nominated as Best Designer in The Stage Debut Awards. It has since secured three nominations, including Best Director, in the 2022 Black British Theatre Awards for its UK tour.
My Voice Was Heard But It Was Ignored is an urgent interrogation of racial identity by Nana-Kofi Kufuor. Fifteen-year-old Reece is roughly accosted by the police outside M&S. His face presses into the wet gravel as a policeman digs a knee into his back. His teacher Gillian watches on, frozen out of fear for her own safety. The next day, Reece locks them both in her classroom and refuses to relinquish the key. He wants her to pay - and to fully understand the pain of the irreversible breakdown of trust her inaction has caused.
The Black British Theatre Awards, now in its fourth year, is the UK’s first award show to celebrate the excellence and influence of Black performers and creatives in the theatre industry. This year’s ceremony will take place at The Lyttelton Theatre on Sunday 16 October.
My Voice Was Heard But It Was Ignored, Red Ladder Theatre Company UK tour, is nominated in the Best Director (Dermot Daly), Outstanding Performance in a Play (Misha Duncan-Barry), and Best Production Play categories.
Dermot said, “I’m thrilled to have received a nomination for Best Director, and especially for a play such as My Voice Was Heard But It Was Ignored.
“The best art leaves you questioning things and we’ve created a play, thanks to Nana-Kofi’s extraordinary writing, which represents individuals who wouldn’t normally see themselves as characters in theatre."
We wish Dermot, Misha and everyone involved in the show all the best for the Black British Theatre Awards.
The second national tour of My Voice Was Heard But It Was Ignored runs until Saturday 15 October.
Update following the Black British Theatre Awards
Well done to Misha Duncan-Barry for winning the Outstanding Performance in a Play Award.
