News & Articles

A selection of news, print and online features

Strong Island – The Contours of Fear: A Documentary Elegy

The Women of Wakanda

Enigma Stigma – a new play

Enigma Stigma played to a SOLD OUT audience at OUT! Liverpool in February 2019, before appearing for one night (7 March 2019) at UNITY THEATRE, Liverpool in conjunction with Sahir House as part of the World AIDS Day Monologue programme: https://www.facebook.com/events/2191884141064618/

Reviews and feedback stated:

“Enigma Stigma, what a fabulous performance, well done to Marj Morgan and the team, a brilliant performance which complemented the night perfectly.” Sahir House.

“Great play and powerful performance. Congratulations!!” Andy Kerr.

“It’s the most moving, emotional and thought provoking piece of theatre I have ever seen.” Mark K. Cooper.

“Amazing, thoughtful and poetic.” Steve Benson.

Enigma Stigma Scratch Event

A portion of my new play, Enigma Stigma, was shared at the Liverpool Everyman Scratch Morning on 24 November 2018. This event was organised by the Everyman Theatre New Works department to showcase sample sections of new writing in the North West.

Enigma Stigma is a play that was  inspired by Duane K Williams, and featured the outstanding acting talents of Nick Sheedy and Liam Powell-Berry.

Audience reviews and feedback:

“It was marvellous.”

“Amazing.”

“That was fantastic.”

“Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.”

“Excellent.”

“The quality of the writing is just wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.”

“I can’t wait to see the whole play!”

The full performance should happen in February 2019. Watch this space for updates.

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My shortlisted play, Let Them Eat Cake, selected in the THE 15th INTERNATIONAL WINDSOR FRINGE 
KENNETH BRANAGH AWARD FOR NEW DRAMA WRITING  had its inaugural performance on 10 November 2018 at the Unity Theatre, Liverpool as part of the annual Homotopia Festival.

Audience reviews and feedback:

“It was a wonderful night.  Thank you (Marj) and Abbie and Kel for all the hard work and thought you obviously put into it.  I hope it’s the beginning of a tradition.” Cheryl Martin, Homotopia Guest Curator

“It was excellent. I thought it was genius. I was really engaged. I was really pulled into it.”

“Lovely night — made my day.”

“It was fantastic.”

“I thought it was really good how you pulled us into the crisis right at the beginning.” Mark Syder

“I like the fact that it was a serious subject but you managed to get some humour into it to relieve the tension.”

“I really enjoyed it … partly the intensity … the staging … the focus is very dynamic.”

“Everybody needs a Stace in their life, it was really well played.”

Emerging Talent: Scratch Night

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Throughout November 2018, I am running a series of four workshops at the Harris Museum, in Preston. The first two will focus on genealogy and family history searches specifically for Black Caribbeans. In the final two workshops in November I will teach creative writing techniques to get participants started writing the story that may currently be stuck inside of them.

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The inaugural performance of The Thin Red Line took place on 21 October 2018 at Hope Street Theatre, Liverpool.

The Thin Red Line is a play that is a critical and creative response to the UNITED list of refugees deaths – it gives voice to personal stories of people on the list. It is constructed using verbatim words from asylum seekers and refugees who have been confronted by ‘Fortress Europe’.

The inaugural performance was well attended, and a special guest, Geert Ates, the Director of the United List of Refugee Deaths travelled from Amsterdam to watch the play; he said,  “We were very happy that we took the decision to visit your play! Impressive, very well done. It boosts our motivation! I hope you manage to show this at schools.”

Other feedback from the audience:

“It had me entranced, hooked and almost in tears. So powerful, so real,”

“A quality piece that doesn’t waste time or energy on getting its message across,”

“Thank you for giving Asylum seekers and refugees a voice!! Amazing,”

“Thought provoking on several levels.”

“I was moved to tears.”

“Congratulations Marj Morgan on another powerful piece of writing.”

Discussions are underway to tour this production.
Updates will be provided on this page in the near future.

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13 June 2018
I am pleased to share the following press release announcing that I was short-listed for:

THE 15th INTERNATIONAL WINDSOR FRINGE 
KENNETH BRANAGH AWARD FOR NEW DRAMA WRITING

The long history of the hostile environment

The Windrush Scandal proves the government can’t be trusted to renegotiate our border policies

‘Wi likkle but wi tallawah’: enduring NHS cuts and Windrush deportations 70 years on

In 2018 we should be saying Happy 70th Birthday to the National Health Service (NHS), and Happy 70th Anniversary to the Windrush arrivals. These two significant events in British history took place in 1948, and they have been inextricably linked since that time. However, far from being a cause for celebration, the NHS is facing a …

Black and European. A Better State of Affairs than Black Americans?

Illustration / Eddie Stok for AWE “All for one, one for all,” the dashing motto of The Three Musketeers, is almost as well known as the devise of the French Republic itself: liberté, égalité, fraternité. Less well known is that Alexandre Dumas, who wrote the classic tale of swordplay, camaraderie, and France’s wars of religion, …

Black bodies and the white gaze in 2018

Black bodies and the white gaze in 2018. A personal insight into the destructive societal and political dichotomy of Blackness and Whiteness. Understanding the social structures of Blackness and whiteness in the 21st century is a mission in a time of crisis. It is important because the human body is a metaphor of social relationships; …

Black Men Walking – Unity Theatre, Liverpool

Black Men Walking, Unity Theatre, Hope Place, Liverpool 26th April 2018 Written by Testament, directed by Dawn Walton. Photo credit: Eclipse Theatre Thomas, Matthew, and Richard walk. They are three Black men who walk, talk and narrate their existence in the present, the past, and the future. As they travel into the safe spaces of …

Breaking the silence surrounding black female infertility

How often have you had a conversation about infertility amongst black women? Not very often, I would suspect. Or even never. Infertility is often viewed through a colour-coded prism: while white female infertility is frequently discussed and treated, there appears to be a silence surrounding black female infertility. Historically, myths surrounding black women, and the …

Caribbean elders are being reclassified as having no status

Caribbean British elders who have been resident in the UK for the majority of their lives are among a rising group of people becoming aware of the political terms of ‘legal ghost’ and ‘no status’ because these terms are increasingly and unexpectedly being applied to them. Many people only know that things have changed for …

Carmen Bryan – Deportation order for £2 shoplifting offence (1962)

British citizenship had been a long tradition within the British Commonwealth, however, following the end of WWII and the continual steady migration of British Caribbean citizens to the UK, there was an increase in British legislation to alter the rights of Commonwealth and colonial people. Before the 1960s it was generally accepted that every British …

CHOGM in London and questions about the Windrush Generation asked in the House

As the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) starts in the UK today (16 April 2018) it is an ideal time to ask what will happen to the children of the Commonwealth who came here as British citizens over 70 years ago? The infomercial promoting the CHOGM states “This is our Commonwealth” and “What’s agreed …

Cruelty by design towards British Caribbean elders

  Information about the cases of the Caribbean British elders being systematically targeted and often deported from their British homes has been widely circulated in the past few weeks. Many members of British society, included the affected British elders, were unaware that they were a part of a group of people who were not officially …

Is Your Hairstyle Killing You

  I now have very short natural hair. Before this current hair choice I had long dreadlocs for over two decades. It seems like a long time ago now, but I also recall having perms and enduring the long and painful process of having my hair straightened. When I was a child in the 1960s …

Jamaican Independence Day 2018 – Why does it matter to Black British people with Caribbean links?

Happy Jamaican Independence Day! 6th August 2018 is the 56th anniversary of the Independence of Jamaica from the control of the British Empire, yet the two countries are still closely aligned after over half a century of Independence because of people like me. I am English, a child of the 1960s, born in the West …

Kanye West, Performance and Controversy

  Kanye West is no stranger to controversy. He calls himself a genius. Causing public outcries appears to be part of his toolkit of skills – unless you buy into the idea that he is a hair’s breadth away from insanity: but isn’t that where genius resides? In an interview on TMZ Live, on 2 …

Letter to America (No. 2) 16/02/17

Letter to America (No. 2) 16/02/17 16 years ago, in 2001, another President who lost the popular vote, George W Bush, took his place in the annals of history as the 43rd President of the United States. This year, in 2017, Donald J Trump, who also lost the popular election vote by around 3 million …

My Letter to America 12/02/17 American Political Dissent in 2017

My Letter to America 12/02/17 American Political Dissent in 2017 Under the current American Republican government the people of the country, and the world, appear to have been motivated into a vocal and physical show of dissent, specifically and particularly, against the 45th President of the United States. To dissent is defined by the Cambridge …

Objectification and sexualisation of the Black female body – from Sara Baartman to Beyoncé

by Marjorie H Morgan © 2018 Since the 15th century – in the Americas and the colonised world – the Black female body has been seen as a product to be used to produce more products in the same image; this has some parallels with the Black African tradition where the Black female body was …

Post-it: Independents Biennial Writers-in-Residence Book Publication 2018

Curated and written by a team of eight Writers-In-Residence, an original anthology of writing has been produced by eight diverse and boundary blurring writers. The writers were granted a residency which included free reign over the Independents Biennial venues and artists to build new stories, soundscapes and ideas.  Independents Biennial 2018 was curated by Art …

Review – Bob The Russian at Unity Theatre, Liverpool

Thursday 28 June 2018, opening night of Bob The Russian at the Unity Theatre, Liverpool – the stage was set as the audience filed in: loud music blared, five silhouetted figures were seen on the semi-darkened stage – three of them looking extra menacing wearing helmets. Smoke billowed around them and the interrogation of Bob …

Review – Nina: A story about me and Nina Simone

Tuesday night (20th March 2018) in Hope Place, Liverpool at the Unity Theatre was where audiences witnessed Josette Bushell-Mingo channelling the revolutionary spirit of the immutable Nina Simone. In an act of mesmerising alchemy Bushell-Mingo ensured that both women were present on the stage and weaved their personalities and sections of their individual life stories …

Review – Satan and Mrs Smith: Boss New Plays

Satan and Mrs Smith, written and directed by Jamie McLoughlin, had its opening show at 81 Renshaw Street on Wednesday 11 July 2018. As the audience enters the small theatre they are greeted by the sight of Mrs Smith (Pamela Ashton) on her sick bed. The sparse scene was set and it required the actors to …

Strong Island – The Contours of Fear: A Documentary Elegy

The sound of repetitive, relentless punching against a fixed piece of board starts this documentary, and a world upside down and back to front ends it. Every frame of the 107 minutes in between reinforces the idea that the director, Yance Ford, is sharing his personal elegy of grief with the camera. This is a …

The Commonwealth, Colonialism and the Legacy of Homophobia

When is an appropriate time to review the subject? Any time. But even more so given the UK’s hosting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGM) in London and surrounding locations, that closed on the 20th April. The Commonwealth consists of 53 member states and 80 organisations that exist in locations around the globe and work together to …

The Importance of UK Black Pride

Marjorie Morgan explores the importance of spaces dedicated to LGBT people of colour in a society where white heterosexuality is deemed the norm. Black UK Pride, an organisation that started in 2006, was created to raise the awareness around the experiences of UK’s Black LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community and promote equality and inclusion. …

The London Shipwreck of Rapparee Cove, Devon, 1796

In February 1997, there was a discovery of human remains buried in a mass grave at the foot of steep cliffs in Rapparee Cove, Devon. The media interest in this discovery created a trail that led back to information about a ship that had been wrecked in Rapparee Cove, north Devon on October 9th, 1796. …

The new cult of PoTUS #45 (Letter to America – No. 4 02/03/17)

The new cult of PoTUS #45 (Letter to America – No. 4 02/03/17) PoTUS #45 has the main characteristics that have been evident in other cult leaders, such as David Koresh, L. Ron. Hubbard, Jim Jones, and Charles Manson. PoTUS #45 has followers who are devoted to him in the same way that has been …

The Watchers: The Compelling Gaze in “The Virgin Suicides”

“The Virgin Suicides” film is a feast of watchers: it confirms that we are all watched and we all watch. Like George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” this film reminds the viewer that we are all under constant surveillance. Sofia Coppola directs her own screenplay adaptation of the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides from behind the director’s lens, …

The Women of Wakanda

“Black Panther” (2018) is a typical Marvel action movie that’s not typical in its casting. A large amount of the action is performed by the women, main characters who don’t exist solely to assist the goals of a male character. They each have their own agendas and missions. The groundbreaking film “Black Panther” features Chadwick …

TranScripts Creative Writing Course 2018

(As reported by Writing on the Wall) Over eight weeks, several writers who identify as Trans are on our creative writing course, TranScripts, in partnership with Liverpool Mental Health Consortium Work created on the course will be published in an Anthology & there will be opportunities to showcase it at Liverpool Pride on 28th July & …

Trump and the legitimisation of hate (Letter to America – No. 3 19/02/17)

Trump and the legitimisation of hate (Letter to America – No. 3 19/02/17) Under PoTUS #45 hate has been legitimised. Well, it has been allowed out from under the cover of white sheets, nighttime raids, and conservative Christianity and placed tenuously in the White House. The irony of the last President (Barack Obama) living in …

We need more vegan medication

Veganism is one of the fastest growing lifestyle movements in Britain. In two years there has been a rapid 6% increase in the number of vegans in the UK, rising from 542,000 in 2016 (Great Britain only) to 3.5 million in 2018. Many people are choosing  the vegan lifestyle because of health implications related to the consumption of meat …

Writer-in-Residence – Independents Biennial 2018 at Tate, Liverpool

Curated and written by a team of eight Writers-In-Residence, working at the new Francis Ewe’s Publishing House On Seel Street as part of Independents Biennial 2018, a temporary reading room will lay the ground works for an original anthology of writing produced by eight diverse and boundary blurring writers. Between 20 August – 6 September …

Travelling While Black

    I do this every day, I walk the local streets, I drive and often take taxis, buses, trains and airplanes to destinations all around the world – I travel while Black. I chose not to notice it at first, wishing that it was an aberration of my mind, but it’s not: I have …