Mustapha Matura

Mustapha Matura (17 December 1939 – 29 October 2019) was a Trinidadian playwright living in London. Characterised by critic Michael Billington as "a pioneering Black playwright who opened the doors for his successors", Matura was the first British-based dramatist of colour to have a play in London's West End, with Play Mas in 1974. He was described by the New Statesman as "the most perceptive and humane of Black dramatists writing in Britain."

Early years

Born Noel Mathura in 1939 to an East Indian father and Creole mother in Port of Spain, Trinidad,

Leaving the Caribbean, he travelled by ship to England where he arrived in 1962; as he recalled in a 1977 interview: "We went to London and found out the sophistication of our dreams was just a gloss. It was very harsh on the bottom of the ladder." After a year working as a hospital porter, he and fellow Trinidadian Horace Ové went to Rome, Italy, where he worked on stage productions such as Langston Hughes' Shakespeare in Harlem. The reviewer for The Arts Desk wrote: "It is surprising that this is the first major revival of Play Mas.... It is exuberant, funny and often charming."

In October 2023, a new production of Meetings was staged by the Orange Tree Theatre, with a cast comprising Kevin N Golding, Martina Laird and Bethan Mary-James, directed by Kalungi Ssebandeke.

Among Matura's subsequent plays were Rum an' Coca Cola (1976), Another Tuesday (Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1978), More, More (The Factory, London, 1978), Independence (1979), A Dying Business (Riverside Studios, 1980); One Rule (Riverside Studios, 1981), Meetings (1981), Playboy of the West Indies (Oxford Playhouse, 1984; produced for BBC television, 1985), Trinidad Sisters (Tricycle Theatre, 1988) and The Coup (Royal National Theatre, 1991).

In 1978, he co-founded the Black Theatre Co-operative (now NitroBeat) together with British director Charlie Hanson. Matura was also a member of Penumbra Productions, an independent production company, other members of which included Horace Ové, H. O. Nazareth, Farrukh Dhondy, Michael Abbensetts, Margaret Busby and Lindsay Barrett, and among whose projects was a series of films based on lectures by C. L. R. James in the 1980s.

Matura's work for television included the Channel 4 sitcom No Problem! (1983–85), written by him with Farrukh Dhondy, and Black Silk (BBC, 1985), which he devised in collaboration with Rudy Narayan.

Personal life and legacy

Matura's first marriage, to Marian Walsh, with whom he had two children (Ann and Dominic), ended in divorce. with whom he had two children, Cayal and Maya. A celebration of his life and work was held on 8 March 2020 at the Young Vic, directed and curated by Nicolas Kent, Anton Phillips and Paulette Randall.

A musical adaptation of Playboy of the West Indies created by Matura, Clement Ishmael, Dominique Le Gendre and Nicolas Kent opened at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in June 2022 as part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival.

The Mustapha Matura Award and Mentoring Programme

In 2021, the Mustapha Matura Award and Mentoring Programme was announced, linked to the Alfred Fagon Award and supported by Matura's estate along with other donors, with the competition being open to emerging young Black playwrights of Caribbean and African descendant up to the age of 25, and including a cash prize and a nine-month mentoring programme with a leading Black British playwright.

Selected works

Black Pieces (ICA, 1970, dir. Roland Rees) As Time Goes By (1971) Bakerloo Line (Almost Free Theatre, 1972; performed on BBC2 Full House, 1973) Nice (Almost Free Theatre, 1973) Play Mas (1974) Bread (Young Vic, 1976) Rum an' Coca Cola (Royal Court Theatre and off-Broadway, 1976) Another Tuesday (Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1978) More, More (The Factory, London, 1978) Independence (1979) Welcome Home Jacko (The Factory, London, 1978) A Dying Business (Riverside Studios, 1980) One Rule (Riverside Studios, 1981) Meetings (Phoenix Theatre, New York, 1981; Hampstead Theatre, 1982) Playboy of the West Indies (1984) Trinidad Sisters (based on Chekhov's Three Sisters; 1988) The Coup (Cottesloe Theatre, 1991) A Small World (Arena Stage, 1994)