Gabrielle Brooks: Someone needs to write about black British history
The first show that Gabrielle Brooks saw, at the age of seven, she was cast in. Not many actors can say that. But then, not many emerging actors can say they’ve not only ticked two of their dream theatres off their job wish list – there are seven on there, by the way – but have also starred in one of the most iconic roles in the musical canon, performed in a plethora of West End musicals and played with the Royal Shakespeare Company. We chat on the phone one morning during her commute, and “play” is a word we return to throughout our interview. The sounds of train whistles and clunking doors provide a suitably theatrical accompaniment as she tells me about a career that first took her away from the playground as a West End child actor and eventually led to one of those aforementioned dream theatres: Covent Garden’s iconic Donmar Warehouse. It’s there that Brooks appears in The Way Of The World, William Congreve’s Restoration comedy whose synopsis will make your head spin. But in a good way, Brooks assures me. “I’m not surprised that you found it complicated,” she laughs when I admit that my research about the sprawling tale of £6000 and everyone’s crooked attempts to get their grubby mitts on it had left me slightly muddled. “We spent a whole week in rehearsals dissecting it,” she says. “The relationships are so clear, it makes it easy to follow. It definitely makes sense when you watch. And it’s funny! It makes a lot of references to what’s going on socially now.” Brooks plays servant Mincing. She’s a “witty, fun, playful maid” who, as part of Congreve’s rich tapestry of characters, is allowed to break free of her station to speak up and make some noise. “It makes reference to feminism: what it meant then, what it means now and how things have changed…” Brooks explains, with a note of despair, adding, “… how things haven't changed at all…” Because, for all its intricate schemes and 1600s scandal, the play, like all the best plays, holds a mirror up to society. And it isn’t always pretty: “[It looks at ] the power of men in society… which is so important to talk about now with everything going on in the world.” Something tells me a lot more was dissected in the first week of rehearsals than just Restoration morality. “I think it’s meant that everyone’s a lot more open, actually,” she says of sharing a space with actors including theatrical royalty Haydn Gwynne. “The theatre community is a pretty open place to be. With what is going on in our particular industry, it makes sitting down with a group of actors talking about feminism and women’s roles in society a lot more open. It’s just a really healthy thing to talk about.” Seven years out of drama school, with such conversations (hopefully) continuing to take centre stage, it seems fair to feel hopeful that Brook’s career will be different to what it might have been even a short decade ago. From not-so-humble beginnings in the West End’s Whistle Down The Wind – “My drama teacher took me to audition when I was seven... I fell in love like that. It’s constantly like being in the playground at school and never having to do lessons” – to her first starring role, as Dorothy in The Wizard Of Oz at Sheffield’s Crucible theatre, she’s on her way to making her mark. “Playing Dorothy was pretty big for me,” Brooks tells me. “Not only because it’s an iconic role. But when you’re a young black woman doing musical theatre, it’s not a role that ever comes into your mind as something you’ll be able to play. That was a big deal for me.” Brooks has moved through the ranks of ensemble roles in everything from The Book Of Mormon to Bowie musical Lazarus. So she’s excited to have reached that enviable position where she can take time to consider her next move. While the start of her career was “saying, ‘Yes, yes, yes’ to jobs to get in the right doors with the right people”, she can now be part of telling the stories she wants to be told. So what to do with that new power? “Right now, I want to do a lot of feminist pieces. With things like [the movies] Black Panther and Hidden Figures, there’s a lot of history being told about black people in America. I think more responsibility needs to be taken from somewhere to tell the stories of black people in the UK and that history. It’s a forgotten piece of history, for some reason. Someone needs to write about it.” She pauses to consider. “Maybe I could write about it…” But first there’s two months at Donmar Warehouse. Maybe “when my feet touch the floor”, she’ll take the time to add playwright to her ever-growing CV. As her commute ends at the Donmar stage door, you can almost hear a smile shine down the line as she adds, “The best [thing about acting] is you get to play for a living… You get to be a kid for a living. That’s your job,” she beams. It seems that playground has a permanent resident.