A recent uproar was sparked when a comment was publicly made by a member of the British National Party, about Chickenshed theatre company using a black actor to play the character Pinocchio in this years Christmas production. This comment left me asking the question is this just prejudice racism? Or does the colour of Pinocchio’s skin affect the show s performance?


Putting my own views and thoughts on the matter to one side, I tried to see why people would think any different to my own views. The one conclusion that I came to was people don’t like to see something they already know interpreted differently. I believe in some peoples cases, that they have seen a version of Pinocchio, for example Walt Disney’s and believe that every Pinocchio should be interpreted exactly the same.

However my opinion on the matter, is that having a black Pinocchio instead of a white Pinocchio does not affect the performance in any way. I believe the performance quality is due to the actor and not the colour of the actors skin. Chickenshed interpretation of the story is different to Walt Disney’s as well as the colour of the puppet, yet why did this not spark a debate? Leading me to the conclusion, in my opinion, that the issue of Pinocchio being played by a black actor instead of the traditional white actor was a truly racist and prejudice way in thinking.