Performance

Sarah Rutherford is a British playwright married to a Jamaican man and raising mixed children. Her new play Adult Supervision, a dramedy, was influenced by conversations she’s had with others about her children and husband (both alarming and encouraging). Adult Supervision explores what happens when a group of mothers gathers to celebrate President Obama’s election. Here’s a quote from the article on representing mixedness in theatre:

Do you think theatre has been shy addressing issues of multiculturalism?

I guess I’ve become very used to seeing certain issues addressed in relation to race: drugs, gangs, all that. Of course they’re more than valid subjects for drama, but what I don’t see on stage is people like me and my friends and family. When there was an outcry about Danny Boyle‘s depiction of a happy, educated, middle-class mixed-race family in the Olympic ceremony, I was aghast at the claims that such families don’t exist. We’re probably one of the fastest-growing demographics in the country; yet we’re pretty much invisible in the media and especially on stage.