Trouble in Mind
Alice Childress's seminal 1955 play. Wiletta is joining the cast of a new 'anti-lynching' drama. But the director's challenging methods are soon to emerge.
A new version of pioneering Black playwright Alice Childress's seminal 1955 play as part of Radio 4's 'Story of America' season.
Trouble in Mind follows a group of actors rehearsing a new Broadway drama with an 'anti-lynch' theme, at a time when issues of segregation and civil rights were fiercely contested across the United States.
Wiletta Mayer is a seasoned Black actress increasingly troubled by the compromises she is expected to make, as the company shapes a story that claims to confront racism while reducing its Black characters to stereotypes. Through its layered, play‑within‑a‑play structure, Childress offers an incisive critique of the period’s racial dynamics, building to a powerful act of artistic and personal resistance.
PART ONE:
As rehearsals begin for Chaos in Belleville, experienced actress Wiletta Mayer meets a company navigating ambition, pragmatism and unspoken racial tensions, while the play’s troubling stereotypes, and the director's challenging methods, start to emerge.
This play was written in 1950s America and features strong discriminatory language of the time.
CAST (in order of appearance)
Wiletta Mayer ..... Doña Croll
Henry ...... Gary Lilburn
John Nevins ..... Tunji Kasim
Millie Davis ..... Ellena Vincent
Sheldon Forrester ..... Joseph Mydell
Judy Sears ..... Isabella Inchbald
Al Manners ...... Joseph Millson
Eddie Fenton ..... Ian Dunnett Jnr
Bill O’Wray ..... Trevor Cooper
Composition and piano by Tim Sutton
Director ..... Femi Elufowoju Jr
Producer ..... Anne Isger
Production Co-ordinators ..... Sara Benaim and Jon Powell
A BBC Studios Production
On radio
Broadcast
- Sun 26 Jul 202615:00BBC Radio 4
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