Breaking the Silence: Women’s Solidarity in debbie tucker green’s Abuse and Trauma Plays

Abstract

debbie tucker green is undoubtedly the leading black British woman playwright of the early twenty-first century. Since her London debut in 2003, when dirty butterfly (2003b) was staged at the Soho Theatre in February followed soon after by born bad (2003a) at the Hampstead Theatre in April, her plays have regularly been produced at London’s main theatre venues.1 The Royal Court have especially championed tucker green’s plays with productions of stoning mary (2005) and random (2008) premiering on the main stage in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs and tucker green directed truth and reconciliation (2011) at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs. The Royal Shakespeare Company transferred trade (2005) from the RSC Swan to London’s Soho Theatre in 2006, generations (2005) and revivals of dirty butterfly were produced at the Young Vic in 2007 and 2014, and the National Theatre produced nut (2013) in their temporary space, The Shed, tucker green has also received extensive international recognition that is rare for black British playwrights with productions of dirty butterfly, born bad and stoning mary in Europe, the USA and Australia.2 Recognition for her work includes a Laurence Olivier Most Promising Playwright Award (2004) for born bad and a BAFTA (British Academy Film and Television Award) for her television adaptation of random (Channel 4, 2011).