- Show guidance includes breathing to induce calm and ‘grounding exercises’
The producers of a controversial play have been accused of ‘infantilising’ audience members by giving advice on how to breathe.
Theatre-goers attending Slave Play in London’s West End, which opened last night, are being offered ‘self-care’ tips to help them cope with the production’s plot and sexually explicit themes.
The play – starring Game Of Thrones’ Kit Harington and Olivia Washington, the actress daughter of Denzel Washington – is about three interracial couples who undergo relationship counselling, which includes role play on a fictitious slave plantation.
The tips can be accessed via the website for the production, which is at the Noel Coward Theatre.
Audiences to West End show the Slave Play are being offered ‘self care’ tips to help them cope with the production’s plot and sexually explicit themes
The guidance can be accessed from the production’s website, and includes tips on breathing and ‘grounding exercises’ such as doing a ‘body scan’ and wiggling your fingers
The guidance states: ‘Breathing is a great way to induce a feeling of calm. Try breathing in for 4-6 seconds, hold your breath for 4-6 seconds, exhale for 4-6 seconds.’
The website also offers ‘grounding exercises’, which include doing ‘a body scan’ to ‘notice how parts of your body feel’ and wiggling your fingers.
In addition, theatre-goers are advised to connect with nature, to ‘plant your feet on the ground with your back supported by a chair’.The theatre has also announced that the auditorium will stay open 15 minutes after the show to give audiences a ‘reflective space’.
The London production of the play, which opened on Broadway in 2019, caused uproar in February when it announced that two performances might be set aside for black theatre-goers to watch uninhibited by the ‘white gaze’.
The show, which is at the Noel Coward Theatre, caused uproar when it announced that two performances might be set aside for black theatre-goers to watch free from the ‘white gaze’
Frank Furedi, emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent, said: ‘It is now normal to infantilise an adult audience through communicating the idea that they may well be traumatised by exposure to a drama.’
And Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History Of History, said: ‘Should we all issue trigger warnings? Having written histories both of slavery and the slave trade, I wonder whether I should coat them in warnings?’
A spokesman for Delfont Mackintosh, which owns the Noel Coward Theatre, said: ‘We have provided a link to the play’s website, where the producers have published information, support and resources for those audience members who may wish to find out more in advance of their visit.’
The play’s producers declined to respond to The Mail on Sunday’s requests for comment.
