Meet the Black-led theatre company championing artists marginalised for their race

One of the important things the Black Lives Matter movement has achieved this year has been a renewed commitment from our cultural institutions that they will do better when it comes to representing the society we all share.

While the organisations making those commitments have been rightly applauded for their stance, there are those who have been fighting the good battle for some time already. One of them is Eclipse theatre.

“We are a national Black-led touring company based in the North and very proud to say so,” says Eclipse’s artistic director Amanda Huxtable.

“We are defined by the people we serve as we exist to support and champion Black British African and Caribbean people and all who are also marginalised for their race who work within the cultural sector.”

It’s the kind of talk we’ve heard being bandied around the cultural sector in recent months. Eclipse has been shouting it for years.

Established in 2003, the company really took shape in 2008 under the impressive artistic directorship of Dawn Walton, working with many black artists and touring nationally to ever greater acclaim.

Last year the company was granted another impressive leader in Huxtable and earlier this year she, along with the company’s newly appointed executive director Shawab Iqbal, oversaw the move of Eclipse from its Sheffield base to Leeds.

I spoke with Huxtable, highly regarded in the Yorkshire arts sector, at the time. She was full of optimism about what the future held. “Eclipse Theatre is one of the foremost Black-led theatre companies in the UK and it’s in the North of England.

"I have long admired the company’s quality of work and ambition as well as its focus on audiences and artists. Having been a freelance director based in the region for a number of years, the chance to lead an organisation was too great an opportunity to miss,” she says.

When she took over, it was an exciting time. Dawn Walton seemed irreplaceable: Amanda Huxtable was the perfect person to continue her work with Eclipse. The future looked bright.

Then Covid happened.

“We had only recently moved to Leeds and it had quickly begun to feel like home. Although we are working remotely, we, like many, are keeping a close eye on when we can safely return. In the meanwhile, we’re using Eclipse Online to keep in touch. Keeping the story of the North experience on the national agenda is part of our role as a national organisation.”

I’m confident in arguing that when it comes to theatres, we are unbelievably blessed in Yorkshire, but of all the companies we have, few are as campaigning as Eclipse. The company’s very existence is political.

In 2015 the company established Revolution Mix, a way for artists to tell Black British stories that had been hidden and forgotten. The scheme led to a number of productions, including the acclaimed play from Leeds artist Testament Black Men Walking which, according to Huxtable ‘caught more than the imagination. It resonated with all who love the landscape of Yorkshire and wish to be seen and heard’.

She says: “Through Revolution Mix, we share life-enriching, thought-provoking stories created using the insights and experiences of Black British people of African and Caribbean backgrounds, and those of us also marginalised for our race. We have recently produced and toured Black Men Walking, Princess and The Hustler and The Gift.”

While theatre has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, for the likes of Huxtable and her team, it has provided a chance to refocus. Just this week Eclipse published a report revealing the impact of an ambitious three-year programme supporting Black artists, and fellow artists marginalised for their race, in the North of England.

How to Plant Magic Beans And Build Rockets to the Moon is an unusual title for a report, but it’s an inspiring one. The report reveals that Eclipse’s Slate programme of work supported over 5,000 Black, Asian and ethnically diverse artists over three years.

Huxtable says: “For many years Black artists, and fellow artists maginalised for their race, have been forced to operate almost entirely outside of the established cultural sector. Through Slate, Eclipse created the conditions for artists to be seen, heard and take action. Because of this programme of work, there is now a tangible legacy in the North of Black-led collaborations, productions, and future cultural leaders.”

Most importantly, reports like How to Plant Magic Beans And Build Rockets to the Moon demonstrate what the likes of Eclipse have been arguing for years: if you make it, the people will come – the report highlights 200 new works which reached audiences of 46,000.

The theatre world is on a temporary pause. Everyone is desperately hoping it is temporary and that soon we will get to play again. Huxtable and Eclipse hope that this temporary state has allowed a re-evaluation of how things are done and what we want the future to look like.

The ‘new normal’ is still up for grabs. Huxtable says: “None of us will be the same after this, however this is not entirely a bad thing.”

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Thank you

James Mitchinson