An exciting new play by Ian Henery will premiere at Birmingham Fest 2024 called Georgina and the Dragon which features students from the Performing Arts Department at Walsall College and students from BOA in Birmingham.
The play will be performed at the new Birmingham Black Box Theatre at 19 Harford Street Birmingham B19 3EB on 13th July at 7pm. The work will be produced and directed by Laura Liptrot and is supported by Poets Against Racism, Walsall Black Sisters Collective, Communities Against Racism Enterprise and Walsall College.
The play was originally written in 2020 during lockdown caused by the COVID pandemic. The genesis behind the writing was the murder of George Floyd in America and Black Lives Matter. According to Ian Henery the link between theatre and St George is the play Henry V where Shakespeare has Henry V rallying his troops to fight the French at Agincourt for England and patriotism with a call on St George.
Ian dedicated the play to his 4 daughters and subtitled it "Don`t Bet on the Prince". The play is about female empowerment, Georgina becomes St George and she slays outdated beliefs and stereotypes including sexism and racism which creates barriers to accessing things that they need to be happy. Ian wanted his girls to know that they could do anything and could confront the things that hold them back.
According to Ian Henery, racism is a monster that needs to be slayed. "I always liked the words of Nelson Mandela", he said:
"No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background or his religion. People learn to hate and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite".
Georgina and the Dragon will be performed at Birmingham Black Box Theatre on 13th July.
