Guest Blog: 'I Wonder What the Backlash Might Be': Actor Rhashan Stone on Race, Emotion and the Importance of TAMBO & BONES

As I enter the rehearsal room for the read through of Tambo & Bones, I can’t help but wonder what the backlash might be. Having appeared in quite a few controversial plays recently, I have been shocked, surprised and profoundly heartened by the audiences responses to challenging material. 

Caryl Churchill’s play Love & Information left some Royal Court patrons furious that ‘it wasn’t really a play’ and certainly not about anything important. The Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fairview had some audience members up in arms at the notion of dividing an audience on the grounds of skin colour. So much so that a man in his 60’s stopped the show by shouting over the young actress delivering the final monologue. He was clearly oblivious to the irony of his outburst. Not only was he silencing a young black woman trying to do her job onstage, but he was wielding his privilege in a way that mirrored perfectly the themes of the play. So, despite some trepidation, here I am about to start the read through of Tambo & Bones, another incendiary play about Race. 

I was born in Newark, New Jersey. My family (on my mother's side) all still live in the US. I get a rush of happiness every time I get to play an African-American character. This play, in particular, speaks to me. It feels so familiar. The first word I utter is a word that I’m unable to write here, but as the room gasps, then dissolves with laughter - I feel relief. We’re off! I bite into the next sentence and as the words roll around in my mouth, it feels like home.

I hear the cadences of my Aunties and Uncles in every line. When it comes to the cursing and expletives I hear my cousins. As I deliver a particularly spicy line that even the writers of South Park might censor, I have a flash-forward to my mother-in-law sitting in row D of the Stalls. I immediately start sweating and stumble over my next line. Thankfully, my fellow actor - Daniel Ward - is an expert swordsman. The play demands that we swash and buckle each line deftly - with deadly accuracy and precision. He gets me back on track and we ride the rhythmic wave that the playwright provides. 

I feel the emotion rising in me as Tambo & Bones describe, in humbling detail, my own experiences in this world. Yes, it’s a satire and as such it’s terrifying warning, a rebuke, a scream. It’s also bursting with love. The thing is - once you peel back the layers of all of the plays I mentioned, what lies beneath is a potent sense of humanity that I feel is vital in today’s theatrical landscape. The problem is that in order to see it you actually have to listen. Closely. Very closely.

There are plenty of opportunities for your knees to jerk, but the writer Dave Harris is daring you to still your lower limbs and work through the discomfort. If you do, what awaits you on the other side is an unexpected denouement that - if you have listened closely - serves as a razor-sharp cautionary tale. We’ve reached that very point in the read-through. Only a few more lines to go. The quality of listening in the room has changed. People lean in, almost imperceptibly. As the last line lingers in the air, I think about the Stratford Audience who will be coming to see this play in a few short weeks… and I smile. This play is for them.

As I look around the room and see the grins on the faces of the Stratford East team, they’re clearly thinking the same thing. Tambo and Bones are thrilling creations. I’m beyond thankful that I’m not playing a solicitor, a doting husband or someone’s friend. I’m playing someone who's actually going to change the world. 

Tambo & Bones is at Theatre Royal Stratford East from 16 June – 15 July

Photo Credit: Aaron Imuere

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