NEWS: All White Everything But Me @ Alphabetti

The one-person play All White Everything But Me comes to Alphabetti from Tuesday 14^th June until Saturday 2^nd July, promising a fascinating insight into the life of an often overlooked sporting great. The play recounts the life of American tennis player Althea Gibson, one of the first athletes to cross the colour line in tennis. Gibson won the French Open in 1956 – the first Black female to win a Grand Slam – and went on to win both the US Open and Wimbledon twice in ‘57 and ’58. Gibson also had a career in professional golf and in Hollywood, both hindered by the persisting racial prejudice rife in late-50s America.

Though Gibson’s success in two separate sports provides a dramatic sporting narrative in itself, All White Everything But Me, the work of acclaimed actor-writer Kemi-Bo Jacobs, insightfully raises questions that have resonances well beyond the niche worlds of tennis and golf. Jacobs’ work asks the still-pressing questions of who is remembered, immortalised in sporting narrative, and who is forgotten, bringing back to public consciousness a true sporting hero in the process.

All White Everything But Me is performed at Alphabetti, Newcastle from Tuesday 14^th June-Saturday 2^nd July.