The Performance of Black Youth Masculinity in Bola Agbaje's and Mojisola Adebayo's Council-Estate Plays

Abstract

The first years of the twenty-fist century saw the emergence of a number of plays dealing with inner-city life, knife-crime and violence. Most of these plays have been the target of extensive criticism for perpetuating negative stereotypes of Black communities, especially Black male youth. This chapter analyses three council-estate plays: Bola Agbaje’s Gone Too Far (2007) and Off the Endz (2010) as well as Mojisola Adebayo’s Desert Boy (2011). My purpose is twofold: on the one hand, I examine the legacies of colonialism that underpin a hegemonic model of masculinity that is depicted in the plays under analysis and which abounds in the representation of Black youth in the UK. To this end, I draw on Judith Butler’s theories of performativity (1988; 1990) to examine how hegemonic masculinities are enacted through the speech, clothing and dominant behavior of the main characters; on the other, I explore how these plays subvert this model by offering images of alternative forms of masculinity which break away from and question this stereotyping. I conclude that in spite of the criticism they have received, the plays under analysis distance themselves from more traditional council estate plays by offering a more positive image upon which progressive forms of Black masculinities can be built.