Alice Childress’s first major work is set in a world that she knew very well both as a performer and a writer – the theatre. It’s 1957 and rehearsals are beginning for a new Broadway production – Chaos In Belleville – an anti-lynching play written by a white playwright. Veteran Black actor Wiletta Mayer is to star in the play, but after years of compromise she finally finds herself unable to go along with the patronising and insensitive portrayal of Black characters that she’s experienced throughout her career. Her consequent clash with the white director opens up deep faultlines throughout the cast and the result is chaos, not in Belleville, but on Broadway.

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for over 30 years and shares his experience as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories dramatised in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. As former Head of Channel Four Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production he has worked on some of the most popular shows in Britain - from EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless. He created the BBC Writers Academy and trained a generation of screenwriters - now with thousands of hours of television to their names. His acclaimed books Into the Woods and Trip to the Moon explore the structure and power of narrative, and he writes, teaches and consults on all forms of storytelling, including many podcasts for R4.

Valerie Curtis Newton is Head of Directing and Playwriting at the University of Washington School of Drama. She is also the Founding Artistic Director for The Hansberry Project, a professional African American theatre lab. Her many directing credits include two productions of Trouble In Mind.

Alice Childress archive clip taken from American Theatre Wing’s documentary series ‘Working in the Theatre’ – April 1987

Reader: Samantha Dakin

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4