Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Theatre director who founded Talawa, a black British theatre company, and was the first black woman to direct at the National Theatre.
On the island
Eight records
Well, I've chosen this because of my grandfather his smashing, and he taught me how to appreciate Ella Fitzgerald, and he used to make me scat along with the lullaby of Broadway.
Moments musicaux, D. 780: No. 3 in F minor
I can remember my sister. She used to do ballet, and every time I hear this bit of music I can see Valerie on points doing her solo piece for us.
I needed somebody to tell me that I was young. Gifted and black and when this came out I thought that is my anthem.
As time went on I didn't need Nina Simone to tell me I was young, gifted, and black. I got more sophisticated, and so therefore when Acabilk's Stranger on the Shore came along, I thought, All right, now, this is going to be my theme tune. I am a Stranger on Your Unwelcoming Shores.
Orfeo ed Euridice: Che farò senza Euridice?
Oh, yes, this is for Starr, my husband, and it's Kathleen Ferrier, singing Quai faro and he always tries to sing this, and tries to sound like Kathleen Ferrier, and fails miserably. But every time I hear it I remember Darling Starr.
Many Rivers to CrossFavourite
I just think this is one of the finest pieces of poetry. To come out of Jamaica, I think it should be our national anthem.
This is for my son, Julian. Bless his heart. And he got to grade eight and piano forty and he plays the piano and he writes songs. But It's classical work that he does, and I wanted to hear him play. The Entertainer by Scott Joplin, and so he did me as a very great favour he learned the first page.
Bob Marley is a favorite of mine. As a young reporter I interviewed him once and I found him the most dynamic person I've ever spoken to in my life. And this No Woman, No Cry or no woman no cry, which is the right pronunciation. Um he was really singing to his wife. Because they were sending him to England. And it was a new future for him, and she was really worried about being left behind.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:44How did they view you [at the Rose Bruford School of Drama]?
They viewed me as a curiosity, and indeed I was. And Miss Bruford took one look at me. and very kindly, I think, said, Well, you do know you'll never work. And I looked at her and I just sort of said, Well, you know, watch this space and went off downstairs.
Presenter asks
2:24How did [the family you lived with in Kent] react to you?
They also, I think, were being very kind to me. And they said, Well, you could have Christmas dinner with us if you showed us your native costumes. So I thought they were joking again. ... And I Did myself up with some beads and some it was in the fifties, so that long skirts with frills and I came down da-da-da! And they were so furious they put me out in the garden. ... because they wanted my grass skirt, you see. And I didn't actually, as a matter of fact, have a grass skirt. These were the very people who thought I must be middle class because my address in Jamaica was halfway tree, so I lived half way up the tree.
Presenter asks
13:08How did people in general on public transport regard you?
They used to pull my hair and touch my skin to see if my colour would come off. And either they would sit next to me deliberately, so especially the men, and the hand would come across and they would be their hands on my knee and other places as well. You were open for molestation. Oh yes, absolutely. It was Freedom Hall. And so I realised that if I screamed It would be good. So as soon as the hand came across the knee, I would let it rest for a minute, then it had started to travel up. I would scream. And I thought it was very funny.
The keepsakes
The book
I'd like to take Primer to learn Italian And then in my Shakespeare I'm afraid it's a special Shakespeare gonna have a Twelfth Night in Italian. So that I can ch'cause I know it off by heart. And I would be able to check my Italian, you see, um, with with that. So that's my book.
The luxury
Olive oil (extra virgin, first pressed Italian)
Olive oil. ... You could take olive oil. If your skin's going dry, olive oil is the answer. You could cook with olive oil, as we know. You can do it for your hair,'cause black hair gets very dry very quickly, and you could put it in your hair. It's got to be absolutely perfect extra virgin virgin first pressed Italian olive oil, of course, but an endless stream of that that should keep me happy.
Presenter asks
18:12What was the concept behind founding your theatre, The Barn?
Well there was theatre in Jamaica, but they weren't doing any plays to deal with racism or black people or African American plays or even Caribbean plays. It was all English plays and the expatriates were doing this and I was unhappy about this because they wouldn't cast me in South Pacific, actually, to tell you the truth, and I thought I sang rather better than the woman who'd got the part. ... She was white. ... And so I thought, well, this is because I am not white, so I will f do my own thing.
Presenter asks
29:25How far do you think we are away from equality of approach in casting?
We still have a road to travel, and art has to lead you have to lead, you have to see beyond the current, the future that we should be looking forward to.
“There were bleak moments. There were many bleak moments. I have to think that people are not deliberately racist. And I had to think that, or else I couldn't go through. And I couldn't go back to Jamaica without a piece of paper, because my father would have cut my head off. So I had to get through those moments and say I will overcome.”
“He, I think, is the greatest influence in my life, because he made me read Dickens, he made me listen to Ella Fitzgerald, he made me scat with her, and he would say to me, Look, Yvonne, you know, if you do anything, you'll do it the best. And I tell you, if they don't like you, it's their loss.”
“I think you need to stand up to bullies, you know.”