| |
|---|
|
White noise, as if turning on an old-fashioned television. It is 1945, the television is playing a documentary on the lives of mixed-race people. More like a nature documentary like Blue Planet rather than an actual exploration of them as human beings.
|
Presenter
|
It's 1947 in the capital city of Wales, Cardiff, which was, and still is, the largest Negro district in the United Kingdom with Negro residents now numbered at about 8000. The married women of this settlement are all whites or mulattoes born there. The influx of coloured people domiciled here is likely to impair on the harmony, strength and cohesion of public life and cause discord and unhappiness amongst all concerned.
|
|
Present day. Tony is sitting at the table. He is anxious, his foot taps purposefully as if somehow the rhythm will cradle his worries. We hear a waitress walk towards the table.
|
Waitress
|
Do you want to order something while you're waiting for your friend?
|
Tony
|
Hi, yes, can I get an orange juice please (waitress goes to leave) and sorry, a whisky?
|
Waitress
|
No worries.
|
|
He looks back at the drinks menu and throws it down on the table. Some moments pass before a young woman arrives and stands next to the table. We hear her footsteps, different from the waitress. We hear his chair pull back as he stands, clears his throat.
|
Tony
|
Gwawr?
|
Gwawr
|
Tony. No, don't hug me ─ social distancing, and all that.
|
Tony
|
Ok. (Beat.) Please, sit, do you want something to drink?
|
Gwawr
|
Yes.
|
Waitress
|
Here's your drink, would you like something?
|
Gwawr
|
Can I have a glass of white wine please?
|
Waitress
|
Would you like Pinot, Sauv/
|
Gwawr
|
/Pinot please, thank you.
|
|
The two sit in more uncomfortable silence.
|
Tony
|
So, how are you?
|
Gwawr
|
Oh, yeah, um, I'm fine. How are you?
|
Tony
|
I'm like Hopalong Cassidy today
|
Gwawr
|
What?
|
Tony
|
You know Hopalong Cassidy?
|
Gwawr
|
No.
|
Tony
|
He's a man from the black and white cowboy era.
|
|
Silence. The waitress arrives back with pinot grigio in hand. She puts it down the table.
|
Waitress
|
Here you go, will you guys be ordering any food?
|
|
Gwawr takes a big swig.
|
Gwawr
|
No.
|
Waitress
|
Ok, well let me know if you need anything.
|
Tony
|
You like a sip of wine then.
|
Gwawr
|
Hmm?
|
Tony
|
You like a sip of wine.
|
Gwawr
|
White wine.
|
Tony
|
I remember your Mum did. (Beat.) Are you sure you're not hungry? You don't want anything to eat?
|
Gwawr
|
No, I'm fine, honestly.
|
Tony
|
So good to see you smiling, I just didn't expect... What is it that spurred you?
|
Gwawr
|
Well um/
|
|
What follows is a compilation of Gwawr trying to get out to Tony what it is she wants to say. This will be cut with news stories, beginning in America, then British news, followed by Wales, followed by Cardiff.
|
Gwawr
|
I guess with everything you know that's going on…
|
News Reader
|
This is CNN Breaking News. We do begin with breaking news. At this hour fires are still burning on the South Side of Minneapolis after protesters took to the streets to demand justice for George Floyd, the unarmed, handcuffed black man who pleaded with the police officer to let him breath as the officer pinned him to the pavement with a knee to his neck.
|
Gwawr
|
I just wanted to know more about, you know, my history...
|
News Reader
|
A very serious escalation of disorder now at Whitehall outside Downing Street... you can see one of the officers has been knocked off his horse, that horse has now bolted at Whitehall, there are bottles and other objects being thrown at the mounted officers.
|
Gwawr
|
… Growing up in Wales and all that …
|
News Reader
|
BBC understands that public health England is to start recording Coronavirus cases and deaths by ethnicity. It comes after research that suggest people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds are at greater risks of becoming seriously ill from Covid-19.
|
Gwawr
|
… I need to understand my history to make sense of the now …
|
News Reader
|
These were the scenes over the bridge in Bristol over the weekend the statue of 17th century slave trader Edward Colston was pulled down by protestors before being thrown into the harbour.
|
Gwawr
|
… I just don't know how to cope with it all …
|
News Reader
|
I can't breathe! I can't breathe! I can't breathe! Here in Cardiff crowds gathered outside the Senedd chanting 'we can't breathe' ─ the three words which have sparked protests across the globe.
|
Dad
|
That upset my system so much.
|
Gwawr
|
Me too.
|
Dad
|
Upset the whole world I think. Middle-class white people are far more radical black than us black people.
|