Norfolk: Actor Ashton Owen's one-man show reflects on rural racism

The one-man show will premiere virtually on 22 March and see Ashton Owen play more than a dozen characters

A man who suffered racist abuse as a child has written a one-man show about his experiences of growing up as a mixed-race person in rural England.

Ashton Owen, 25, will perform his show, titled Outskirts, at Sheringham Little Theatre in north Norfolk.

It will premiere virtually on 22 March and Mr Owen will play more than a dozen characters from his childhood.

He said: "I hope the play gets people to think about what they say and do and how it impacts on people of colour."

The performance is part of the theatre's Rewriting Rural Racism project, being led by young performers in light of the Black Lives Matter movement and its rise to prominence after the death of George Floyd in the United States last year.

Mr Owen, whose father is of Jamaican heritage, said: "We are trying to make people more aware of issues faced by people living in rural areas, by highlighting real experiences, so they realise it happens here as well as the United States."

The show, titled Outskirts, will be performed at north Norfolk's Sheringham Little Theatre

He said the show would give an insight into experiences from his youth, including an occasion he was accused of "attention-seeking" at school for querying the use of a racial slur in a book.

"I was angry," he said. "Mainly when I got home rather than at school, because my mum told me to not react there.

"But I resented that I was the one who ended up having counselling for something that was really other people's problems."

In the play, Mr Owen also recalls instances of racist slurs being used against him during his upbringing.

The show's director, Natalya Martin, said: "It is a serious message but we are trying to keep it light and playful, so it is an entertaining way of opening people's minds."

Outskirts was planned to be a live stage drama, but will instead be shown online due to coronavirus restrictions.