Yvonne Brewster
Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010
BBC
4.4 • 804 Ratings
🗓️ 27 March 2005
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the theatre director Yvonne Brewster. She has been a major force in black British theatre for the last 20 years. Born into a wealthy family in Jamaica, Yvonne rebelled against her parents' plans for her - marriage and children - to become a theatrical pioneer. She says she was the first black drama student in Britain - but when she enrolled, her drama school's principal told her that, as a black actress, she would never get work here. She went on to become the first black woman to direct at the National Theatre.
Throughout her career Yvonne has been an outspoken proponent of black theatre. In 1986 she founded the theatre company Talawa, whose name in Jamaican dialect means tough or feisty. Talawa gained attention - and audiences - by putting on productions such as an all-black Importance of Being Earnest.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Favourite track: Many Rivers to Cross by Jimmy Cliff Book: Primer to learn Italian and tape Luxury: Olive oil
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy. |
| 0:05.4 | My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:10.7 | The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that. |
| 0:17.4 | With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to |
| 0:22.4 | helping you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all |
| 0:28.1 | put together by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life, |
| 0:34.9 | check out BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm Krista Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. |
| 0:42.2 | For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. |
| 0:45.3 | The program was originally broadcast in 2005, and the presenter was Sue Lawley. |
| 0:50.6 | Music was Sue Lawley. |
| 1:08.8 | My castaway this week is a theatre director. |
| 1:11.5 | She was born into an affluent family in Jamaica. |
| 1:16.1 | Her grandfather, a pole, had set up a successful undertaker's business on the island. |
| 1:21.0 | He was a great influence, introducing her to Shakespeare, Dickens and Ella Fitzgerald. |
| 1:27.0 | She came to England to drama school in the 50s, where she was told a black actress would never find work. So she took herself off to |
| 1:28.3 | the Royal Academy of Music and passed with flying colours. Back home, she founded a theatre company |
| 1:33.7 | whose first production, The Electronic Nigger, caused a storm of protest and attracted big audiences. |
| 1:40.3 | Back here in the 80s, she founded a black theatre group where she put on all black productions, not just of works by black writers, but also of classics such as the importance of being Ernest and Anthony and Cleopatra, arguing that black theatre is an essential part of British cultural life. |
| 1:57.6 | She called it Tallowa, which means gutsy, feisty in Jamaican dialect. Fueled herself with |
| 2:03.9 | endless enthusiasm and zest for life. She's also pretty Tulloa herself. She's Yvonne Bruster. |
| 2:10.4 | Yvonne, there are lots of first first first first first woman to direct a play at the National. |
| 2:16.6 | You were the first black officer at the Arts Council. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.