Munya Chawawa Says Cast Experienced Racism & Homophobia During A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Run

Munya Chawawa has revealed that a canceled performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream due to a homophobic act was "just the tip of the iceberg" of what the cast of the Chichester Festival theatre production experienced.

In a new Instagram post after the show's closure, Chawawa revealed that the company was met with "abysmal" levels of racism, xenophobia and homophobia during their run, Pink News reveals.

“For some of us, Chichester was a real struggle,” Chawawa said. “I don’t know if I have witnessed and or experienced as much racism, xenophobia and homophobia as I saw in those six weeks. I think I saw more in those six weeks than I have actually seen across my entire lifetime.”

In early October, a performance of the play was canceled after a cast member was chased through Chichester city centre while having homophobic slurs hurled at them. Sussex Police later arrested a teenage boy for the hate crime.

Chawawa said both the cast and audience faced "utterly abysmal" attacks, including a group of BRIT School students yelling out racist remarks in the streets, with others being followed with more prejudice being thrown at them. He went on to state that the hostile behavior that was exhibited is showing up more and more in daily life.

“My first thought was, it’s worked,” he shared. “This 24-7 pipeline of hatred into people’s eyes and ears has actually changed people in the street.”

Chawawa is one of the founders of Black Boys Theatre Club, an initiative to bring more Black representation and access to theatre for young Black boys.