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For Alicia McKenzie, one of the most striking discoveries in researching Black British history was a connection to the place where she grew up.
The actor, storyteller and theatre-maker was born and bred in Darlington. Learning about Arthur Wharton, the pioneering Black footballer whose sporting career took him through the town, changed her understanding of its past.
“I was born and bred in Darlington, and I never imagined that there were black people in Darlington at the end of the 19th century,” she says in a Q&A supplied by Red Ladder. “I was blown away by that.”
There's quite a distance between a history existing and a child knowing it belongs to their hometown. McKenzie’s response gives that distance a personal scale. A familiar place suddenly acquires another story; the past becomes both larger and closer.
On Sunday 22 November, she brings Alicia’s Amazing Adventure to Find the First Black Britons to The Grove Hall in South Kirkby, as part of the Red Ladder Local season. A family production for children aged seven and over and their grown-ups, it turns a search for answers into a participatory journey through time.
The show starts with a childhood question about why people have different coloured skin. An unsatisfactory answer from a teacher leads Alicia towards another question: how long have Black people been living in Britain?
Ancestors guide her search, leaving clues to solve as she travels into the past and encounters characters from the Black diaspora who have contributed to British society. McKenzie plays Alicia and the people she meets along the way.
The idea had been with her for years before lockdown gave her time to develop it. Her experience in children’s theatre helped shape a production that invites its audience to participate: an adventure in which curiosity becomes part of the action.
That's a useful starting point for family theatre. Kids' ask questions before they've acquired all the assumptions adults bring to an answer. A performance can make room for that questioning, using character, play and surprise to keep a difficult subject open.
McKenzie’s ambition is to widen the story audiences encounter. Britain’s connections with other places, and the people who have made their lives here, are essential to her understanding of its history.
“If we don't tell these stories, then we will forget our history,” she says.
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Wharton’s story makes the Northern connection tangible. Born in Jamestown in what is now Ghana, he came to Darlington in the nineteenth century. His achievements as a sportsman made him a pioneering figure in British football.
His life also raises questions about how achievement is remembered. The Arthur Wharton Foundation records that he was buried in an unmarked grave in Edlington in 1930. A campaign by Football Unites Racism Divides secured a headstone for him in 1997.
That gap between a remarkable life and public recognition gives McKenzie’s concern about forgetting real weight. History reaches us through choices: what's taught, commemorated, researched and retold. A family show can be one of the places where a name first becomes familiar.
For a kid in South Kirkby, hearing about someone connected to Darlington might prompt a question about their own town. Who lived here? What did they do? Which stories have we yet to hear?
McKenzie’s own route into performance began early. She recalls music at home, learning the cello at school, singing in church choirs and attending Stagecoach classes. Her career has since included Small Island at the National Theatre and EastEnders. Yet her account of growing up includes a significant absence: she rarely saw people who looked like her, or lives resembling her own, represented in the work she encountered.
That experience informs both the stories she tells and her determination to take them into communities.
The Grove Hall is part of the meaning of this visit. Red Ladder Local takes professional productions into community venues, making familiar surroundings a place to encounter live performance.
The company’s explanation of the approach is practical. As we're regularly talking about at MagNorth, distance, transport and the prospect of getting home can shape whether someone attends a show. So can the feeling that a theatre building is a place intended for other people.
McKenzie gets that distinction.
“I really believe that theatre can be for everyone. But sometimes they feel more comfortable going into their local community hall or a local library. I want to bring my show to places like this, so it reaches a wider audience.”
Her production connects two questions that are often considered separately: whose lives appear on stage, and who feels able to sit in the audience. Bringing a fuller account of British history into a local hall offers families a chance to explore it together, close to home.
The show is directed by Cheryl Martin, with dramaturgy by Dermot Daly. Its creative team includes composers Nathan McKenzie and Paul Kagondo, movement director Joanne Bernard and designer Bolu Dairo.
McKenzie hopes audiences will enjoy themselves, learn something and leave thinking about the different ways of being British. The adventure begins with a child asking for a better answer. In South Kirkby, it might end with families carrying a few new questions home.
See the show: Alicia’s Amazing Adventure to Find the First Black Britons is at The Grove Hall, South Kirkby, on Sunday 22 November 2026 at 2pm, as part of Red Ladder Local. Running time: 65 minutes.
Recommended for ages 7+ and their grown-ups. Red Ladder advises that some scenes depict experiences of the slave trade which younger audience members may find upsetting.
Header image: Alicia's Amazing Adventure (credit Jenny Harper)
