“Could you put your white best friend on stage and remind them that they're part of the problem? Even if you love them? Even if you never want anyone to feel for even a moment how you feel living in this world every day? Would - could - a white person finally hear what you have to say?”
Originally commissioned by The Bunker Theatre as a critically-acclaimed festival that ran in 2019, My White Best Friend collects 23 letters that engage with a range of topics, from racial tensions, microaggressions and emotional labour, to queer desire, prejudice and otherness. Expressing feelings and thoughts often stifled or ignored, the pieces here transform letter writing into a provocative act of candour.
Funny, heartfelt, wry and heart-breaking, whether a letter to their younger self or an ode to the writer's tongue, this anthology of exceptional writing is always engaging and thought-provoking.
Featuring different letters from some of the most exciting voices in the UK and beyond, My White Best Friend (And Other Letters Left Unsaid) includes work from: Zia Ahmed, Travis Alabanza, Fatimah Asghar, Nathan Bryon, Matilda Ibini, Jammz, Iman Qureshi, Anya Reiss, Somalia Seaton, Nina Segal, Tolani Shoneye, Lena Dunham, Inua Ellams, Rabiah Hussain, Mika Johnson, Jasmine Lee-Jones, Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan, Shireen Mula, Ash Sarkar, Jack Thorne and Joel Tan.
Rachel De-Lahay is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. Her debut play, The Westbridge, produced at the Royal Court Theatre, went on to win a Writers' Guild award for Best Theatre Play, as well as coming joint first for the Alfred Fagon Award. Her second play, Routes, opened Vicky Featherstone's first season, also at the Royal Court Theatre, and garnered her an Evening Standard Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright. She was given the Pearson Award to write for Birmingham Rep, where her play Circles won the Catherine Johnson Award from Channel 4. As a screenwriter, her credits include the BAFTA-nominated Kiri (Channel 4); the BAFTA-nominated The Last Hours of Laura K, a multi-platform, 24-hour murder mystery for the BBC; Amazon's The Feed, based on Nick Clark Windo's novel; an episode of the American drama The Eddy for Netflix, to be directed by Damien Chazelle; and the final episode of Noughts & Crosses, based on Malorie Blackman's young adult novel.
