Mixed Race Studies

Multi-award nominated playwright Natasha Marshall talks about the return of her hit show, Half Breed!

Theater Full Stop
2018-03-29

Lucy Basaba, Founder & Editor

Debuting at last year’s Edinburgh Festival, Natasha Marshall’s Half Breed has sparked conversation about what it means to be of mixed heritage in Britain today and how this is viewed within society. A part autobiographical work, Marshall’s vital one woman show has received critical acclaim, picking up multiple award nominations in the process. Marshall credits the show’s success to the influential Talawa Theatre Company and Soho Writer’s Lab for allowing the show to reach its full potential.

Both companies are renowned for their support and championing of new writing, contributing to our contemporary canon of new voices. Read on to find out more about Marshall’s response towards the show’s success, what she’d like for audiences to take away from the show and what it was like performing the show to audiences in India!

You’ll be performing your critically acclaimed show Half Breed at Soho Theatre in April before embarking on a UK tour. How are you feeling ahead of the tour?

I’m nervous but mainly so excited to take this story to the places that need it the most. Schools/ rural areas… it’s going to be a journey. Feels very surreal to be doing this because I never imagined it would go this far, but very grateful it has.

Half Breed places focus on identity; growing up as the only mixed raced resident within a rural part of the UK. What drew you to write a piece on this particular subject?

It’s my experience on what it means to be black and I never saw that portrayed anywhere, so I decided to do it myself. Just wanted to see more variety onstage for people of colour, I was tired of seeing/performing the same old stereotypes…

Read the entire interview here.

The one woman show

The New Indian Express
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
2017-10-14

Ablnaya Kalyanasundaram, Chennai Express

• Natasha Marshall’s solo play Half-breed aims to start a social discussion about racism
• She also attempts to reach out to victims of racism through her 60-minute play

Chennai: Racism, whether casual or blatant, is a difficult topic to express by those on the receiving end. Despair at the unfairness of it and a perpetual burning question of ‘Why me?’ prevents many from expressing anger and standing up against it. Born in a small village in Wiltshire, England, in a predominantly white area, Natasha Marshall has come a long way from the ostracised young girl to award-shortlisted playwright and actor. In the city to tell us her story through theatre, she speaks to CE about Half-breed.

Half-breed started as a three-minute poem. Natasha used to perform the poem at open mic nights and poetry nights in London. Gradually she built it to a play, thanks to a writing programme with two theatre groups, Soho theatre and Talawa Theatre Company, the co-producers of Half-breed. “I was a 26-year old, who moved back home to live with my grandma. I felt lost. I decided to write the play, and all I wanted was for someone to give me a chance, and they did. This play has literally changed my life in many ways,” Natasha smiles.

A one woman show, Natasha combines a total of seven characters in the 60-minute play. She plays the role of Jasmine, a young mixed-race woman who lives in a little village in the west of England, with dreams of becoming an actor; she is also the racist character. “I play my whole village. I play the racist and also the woman facing it. I think that makes the show more interesting and delivers a stronger message,” she quips. “I feel all the characters are a piece of me. Ultimately nobody’s perfect — we all can say ignorant things.”…

Read the entire article here.

Half Breed, theatre review: Funny, gripping show packs a punch

London Evening Standard
2017-08-14

Veronica Lee

Impassioned: Natasha Marshall performs in Half Breed Rebecca Need-Menear

Natasha Marshall gives an impassioned performance in a semi-autobiographical show, writes Veronica Lee

“I am that mixed-race kid, 50/50. I’m about as black as it goes round here,” 17-year-old Jaz says in Natasha Marshall’s semi-autobiographical piece about being the only non-white girl growing up in a small English village.

Jaz, who lives with her white grandmother in the West Country, dreams of going to drama school while her best friend, Brogan, whose main ambition in life is to have a baby, talks of London as if it were Mars.

But they’re tight, these two, kindred spirits brought together by both having spent time in the care system, and Brogan, despite not being able to fathom why her friend is doing it, is as determined as Jaz that her Shakespeare audition speech will be perfect…

Read the entire review here.