Play Starring Game of Thrones' 'Jon Snow' to Hold 'Black Out' Performances 'Free From the White Gaze'

Helen Sloan/Courtesy of HBO via AP

Can you imagine the public outcry if you tried to stage a Broadway play for whites only?

The entire primetime lineup over at MSNBC would cry in unison, the BBC would find themselves unable to report on any other story, and Rev. Al Sharpton would throw himself in front of any camera within shouting distance.

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But it’s apparently OK to stage a production with “Black Out” nights where only black-identifying audience members are “welcomed.”

Whites, Asians, and others will seemingly need to find other sources of entertainment because they aren’t invited to at least two shows of a London production called “Slave Play”:

The producers of a play in London’s West End have confirmed there will be at least two productions where white audiences are effectively banned.

The controversial Slave Play, which is due to star the Game of Thrones actor Kit Harington, is due to have two “Black Out” nights where only black-identifying audience members are “welcomed”. The producers said it was so they could “experience and discuss an event … free from the white gaze”.

Note to producers: you won’t be free from the “white gaze,” because one of your stars – English actor Kit Harington of Game of Thrones fame – is quite white, at least by appearance. I also can’t help but find humor in the fact that his celebrity status was earned by playing the character “Jon Snow.”

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But why would you endorse such a blatant act of discrimination and racism? Somehow by excluding people, you will promote diversity:

They [Black out nights] were pioneered in New York for the original 2019 production of Slave Play in an attempt to increase the diversity of theatre audiences who have historically been overwhelmingly white.

The playwright, Jeremy O Harris, told the BBC that he was “excited” about no-whites allowed performances:

“In most places in the West, poor people and black people have been told that they do not belong inside the theatre,” he said.

Who has said that, and when? That is a helluva charge, and I would like documentation.

It is true that theater can be expensive and hard for the average family to afford. My daughters love musical theater, and taking them to Broadway more than once in a blue moon is prohibitive. Nobody is discriminating against me or my family, however; and we take advantage of community offerings, 99-seat theater, and the lotteries that some major productions run where you can enter for a chance for a seat to see a major musical or play.

I actually encourage efforts to help more people see theater, and I applaud programs to get folks of lesser means into the seats. 

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But discrimination is not the way to do it. Excluding different ethnicities is racism, plain and simple, no matter how noble the cause. 

I’d like to think that Jon Snow would have stamped his furry boot down and said, “This will not stand.”

I’m guessing I’ll miss out on this play, but I’ll get over it because frankly it sounds like sort of a clunker:

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