The Stage

Talent drain

Published Tuesday 30 September 2008 at 11:40

I read the letter from Bryn Hughes headlined American Dream (Letters, page 8, September 25) with interest. Keira Knightley and Kate Winslet aside - lovely as they are - I’d like to mention the names of a few more actors that have left the UK to work in the US. Idris Elba, Eamonn Walker, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Treva Etienne, Chiwetel Ejiofor, David Oyelowo… I could go on.

The drain of the best of black British stage and screen actors has been going on for an awfully long time, prompted not so much by the lure of Hollywood but the inability of British film and television producers to create parts for them. I’m sure I don’t need to remind anyone of the Cannes debacle when Marianne Jean-Baptiste, the Oscar-nominated actress, was not invited to join the Brit pack in 1997, having starred in the film that won the Palme D’Or the year before!

In light of the huge success of such innovative television series as The Wire, perhaps the reason talent is drawn to America is not just the money, but the space to truly shine that creative and financial risk-taking creates.

Patricia Cumper

Artistic director

Talawa Theatre Company

East Road

London N1