ABSTRACT
T Talawa Theatre Company Talawa is a Jamaican word, derived from Old Ashanti or Tiwi, meaning 'small but stalwart' or 'strong, female and powerful'. The theatre company bearing that name was founded in 1985 by Yvonne Brewster, Carmen Munroe, Mona Hammond and Inigo Espejel. Its director is Yvonne Brewster, who co-founded the Barn Theatre in Jamaica in 1965 with Trevor Rhone, but has worked in Britain since 1974. Initially, the company was concerned with the portrayal of black women. After seven years, it had, however, produced only one play by a woman - Ntozake Shange's The Love Space Demands. Brewster proposed that the company should adopt the wider aim of informing, enriching and enlightening British theatrical and dramatic discourse by employing in the production process ancient African ritual and black political experience. Talawa also set out to introduce the British public to the work of black playwrights and to imbue the classics with a new cultural perspective by casting them solely with black actors. Unlike most black theatre companies, Talawa has had its own building - the Cochrane Theatre in central L o n d o n - s i n c e 1991.
