The British Library has acquired the archive of Mustapha Matura (1939–2019), a pioneering Black playwright and one of the first British-based dramatists of colour to have a play performed in
London’s West End.
The archive comprises 18 boxes of papers along with born-digital content stored on two hard drives and 176 floppy disks. It includes literary drafts of all Matura’s plays, numerous unpublished and unproduced scripts for stage and television, and a range of autobiographical materials.
Born Noel Mathura in Port of Spain, Trinidad, Matura moved to the UK in 1962 and adopted the name Mustapha Matura upon becoming a writer. His landmark play Play Mas transitioned from the Royal Court Theatre to the Phoenix Theatre in 1974, marking a historic moment as he became one of the first playwrights of colour to reach the West End.
Throughout his career, Matura opened doors for a new generation of Black British writers. In 1978, he co-founded the Black Theatre Co-operative, which helped launch No Problem!, a pioneering Channel 4 sitcom that ran for two series. He also contributed to and directed several television projects, including the BBC series Black Silk.
Archive highlights
Key items in the archive include:
- Drafts of Matura’s major plays, such as:
- Play Mas (1974), set during Trinidad's carnival season
- Welcome Home Jacko (1983), exploring the experiences of four West Indian teenagers in Britain
- Rum an’ Coca Cola (1976), centring on a former calypso star
- The Coup (1991), a satire on a fictional coup in Trinidad and Tobago
- Playboy of the West Indies (1988), adapted from J.M. Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World (1902)
Drafts of unrealised and unpublished works, including:
-- Band of Heroes/Our Heroes, about the Notting Hill Carnival
- The Life of Boysie Singh, based on the infamous 20th-century Trinidadian criminal
- The first chapter of The Prinz of Netherlander, an unpublished autobiographical novel chronicling Matura’s voyage to England at age 21
- A short non-fiction piece about Ladbroke Grove, which Matura called a “writers’ paradise,” written in 1992
Poetry from the late 1960s and 70s, including handwritten and typed drafts, and published works such as Thought on Freedom, which appeared under the pseudonym “Rakeman” in the 1970 journal Spirit
Additional notable works featured in the archive include Independence (1979), chronicling Trinidad’s path to self-rule; Meetings (1981), a satirical look at professional life in Trinidad; and Trinidad Sisters (1988), an adaptation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters.
Reflections on Matura’s legacy
Helen Melody, Lead Curator of Contemporary Literary and Creative Archives at the British Library, said: ‘We are delighted to have acquired Mustapha Matura’s archive, which will be a significant addition to our Caribbean diasporic collections. Matura was a major figure in post-war British theatre with success in the UK and internationally. The archive is a particularly rich resource for textual study of Matura’s plays as it contains successive drafts, which allow a real insight into his creative process.’
Ingrid Selberg, Mustapha Matura’s widow, said: ‘Mustapha would have been thrilled, honoured and humbled to have his works find a home at the British Library. He would have found it ironic too, as he’d left school at 14, and followed an unconventional path into becoming a successful playwright. I hope that the acquisition will inspire interest in his works and legacy, which we are also trying to promote through the creation of the annual Mustapha Matura Award for a promising Black British playwright.’
The archive will become available to researchers once cataloguing is complete. It adds to the British Library’s extensive collection of theatrical manuscripts, which spans from early theatre to contemporary works, offering deep insight into the creative process behind British and Caribbean theatre. Photo by Francine Lawrence, Wikimedia commons.