One-woman Smethwick play explores health of black people

Joan Blaney, with long hair, wearing a blue dress on the left, is pictured with Tonia Daley Campbell, who has a hat on. Both are smiling and it is a largely empty stage behind them, although a coat stand and a leather chair are visible.

Perisha Kudhail

BBC Radio WM

Andrew Dawkins

BBC News, West Midlands

2 hours ago

A one-woman show is being staged in the West Midlands to highlight health inequality within the black community.

Informed by elderly African and Caribbean voices, the character of Miss Ida hopes to address health worries with a comedic twist.

Producers spoke to elderly members of the black community in the West Midlands to inform the character.

It will be staged at two venues on Friday, in Smethwick and West Bromwich, after previous dates in Wolverhampton and Birmingham.

Miss Ida – Tek Charge of Yuh Health is a collaboration between Birmingham-based theatre company and charity Women & Theatre and The William Wilson Turner Foundation, which supports initiatives promoting and advancing public health.

Played by Tonia Daley-Campbell, Miss Ida is a retired nurse who has spent her life advocating for health and well-being.

The character is concerned about “the healthcare disparities amongst elders – particularly those in the African and Caribbean communities,” Women & Theatre said.

A group of eight men, with some wearing a coat and a hat or cap. They are all standing in a room near a chair and paper bags.

Foundation CEO Joan Blaney said: “We met with a group of black men in Wolverhampton and they’d said it was the very first time anyone had asked them about how they felt about their health.

“It enabled people to feel they had an ownership and that their views were being taken seriously.”

Ms Blaney said she herself was a nurse and “we recognised the trust and the respect that older nurses have”.

It was decided it would “be good to have a character who was actually playing that” and people were more likely to “be engaged and listen to what she had to say”, the CEO added.

The character of Miss Ida in rehearsals on stage. She is wearing a hat and is being watched by two people sitting down as lights project onto the stage area.

The show premiered as part of Black History Month at the Heritage Centre, Wolverhampton, on 25 October before moving on to the Legacy Centre in Birmingham on 7 November.

The free show will now be at Brasshouse, Smethwick, at 13:00 GMT on Friday and at Shiloh church in West Bromwich from 18:00.