An innovative playwriting course is energising young people from ethnic backgrounds. Lorne Jackson spoke to three of them.

There was a time when theatre was solid, smooth and stultifyingly safe.

The focus was on snippy gossip, snipped lawns, clipped diction and crisp cucumber sandwiches.

Not to mention all those French Windows for actors to shuffle through.

Frightfully middle-class, old bean. Little had evolved since Noel Coward trod the boards.

No wonder Britain’s modern, multicultural audience chose to swap theatre tickets for TV remote controls and movie popcorn.

Now theatre is changing. It’s romping into relevance again, with contrast, colour and a cultural blend of fresh ideas and new inspirations.

Take Daniel Christie, for instance.

The twenty-one year old has always had a passion for rap music. Hip-hop was the Coventry youngster’s favourite form of self-expression.

“But I never completed anything,” he admits. “Then I hooked up with the Belgrade.”

As well as rapping, Daniel also dreamed of writing a film script.

But living in the Midlands, far from Hollywood, he had no idea how to blag his big break.

Then he heard about the Critical Mass playwriting programme run by the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, created specifically for writers from black and ethnic minority communities.

Now in its third year, the programme was a huge help to Daniel, giving him the gumption to grab for his dreams.

On the course, he wrote a play called From Jamaica With Love, about the Windrush generation of West Indians who settled on these shores.

“It was a great experience,” he says.

“Although my main ambition is to write movies, working on the playwriting course really helped me with my ultimate goal.

“On the course, I learnt a lot about structure, dialogue and building characters, all of which is really important when you want to write film scripts.

“Now I’ve written a couple of scripts, and really want to push my way into the film industry.”

Working on the Belgrade course has also given Daniel a healthy appreciation of theatre. He still loves rap and cinema, though now he’s also a sucker for the stage.

“There needs to be a greater awareness of how good theatre really is,” he says.

“People are always bigging-up film and TV. But theatre doesn’t get the same publicity, which is a shame. People who are my age and younger tend to think it isn’t for them.

“Before I got involved, I thought theatre meant pantomime or boring stuff from the 17th century.

“But since I’ve been around it, I’ve discovered there really is a lot of young blood in the theatre industry. Whenever I take my friends to the theatre now, they’re really impressed.

“But I think you have to be close to somebody who is in the know. Someone who will take you and show you what it’s all about.

“More exposure is definitely what theatre needs.”

Theatre in the Midlands is certainly getting an injection of vim and vigour, thanks to programmes like Critical Mass.