Norfolk: Actor Ashton Owen’s one-man show reflects on rural racism
Pleased to see this story – rural areas needs to stay alive to the challenge of racism
A man who suffered racist abuse as a child has written a one-man show about his experiences of growing up as a mixed-race person in rural England.
Ashton Owen, 25, will perform his show, titled Outskirts, at Sheringham Little Theatre in north Norfolk.
It will premiere virtually on 22 March and Mr Owen will play more than a dozen characters from his childhood.
He said: “I hope the play gets people to think about what they say and do and how it impacts on people of colour.”
The performance is part of the theatre’s Rewriting Rural Racism project, being led by young performers in light of the Black Lives Matter movement and its rise to prominence after the death of George Floyd in the United States last year.
Mr Owen, whose father is of Jamaican heritage, said: “We are trying to make people more aware of issues faced by people living in rural areas, by highlighting real experiences, so they realise it happens here as well as the United States.”