Attracting multicultural audiences at the National: Rafta, Rafta... Photograph: Tristram Kenton
In a recent blog, Lindesay Irvine noted that clever marketing deals had led to a radical ethnic diversification of the National Theatre's audience for Rafta, Rafta... and that we have come a long way from Tamasha's East is East at the Royal Court back in 1995, with its distinctly white audience.
This isn't the first time that ethnic minority audiences have gone to the theatre. As a matter of fact, East is East achieved a truly mixed audience when it transferred to the West End. That marked the first time ethnicity, or diversity, crossed over into attracting a mainstream audience.
How quickly the theatre marketeers have realised the value of the "brown pound"! But the industry built around marketing to ethnic minority audiences is booming because companies like Tamasha, Nitro, Talawa and Kali - all run by multicultural practitioners 365 days of the year - provide a product in the national arena for marginalised groups of people. This is what gets them into theatres in the first place. It's important to remember that these companies, through their artistic output, have given the suggestion to the mainstream venues that the brown pound is out there to be tapped for theatre revenue.
When Tamasha was created, one of our reasons for being was that we realised there was an audience for our work and for the kinds of stories we wanted to tell about the Asian diaspora. Tamasha continues to pioneer and develop work for these audiences. Our adaptation of Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance recently finished its UK tour. It's just one example of the artistic risks we are continuing to take - and which are embraced by white and non-white audiences.
There is now a whole industry built around marketing to diverse audiences, but is it really just about the National Theatre's attempts to sell tickets to as wide a range of groups as possible? That's too simplistic and ignores the diversification that has taken place on the stages and in the rehearsal rooms so that now, 10 years after East is East, there is much more work that is marketable to both mainstream and diverse audiences.
