Julian Fellowes feels “quite strongly” that there needs to be more diversity on the stage, but that for his production of Half A Sixpence only a white cast would be appropriate because of the time and place in which it is set.
He said that for period dramas, like his West End musical, it would be untruthful to cast ethnic minorities because it is set more than 100 years ago.
The Downton Abbey creator said that for contemporary theatre, though, there needs to be a focus on more adventurous casting, following a report commissioned by Andrew Lloyd Webber last year into the “hideously white” British theatre industry.
Julian, 67, told The Stage: “I feel quite strongly that ethnic minorities don’t get a sufficient look-in.
“The way to get a better balance in our artistic community is in casting. We need much more adventurous casting.
“When you are doing a modern drama there is absolutely no reason why anyone can’t play most of the parts.
“In every contemporary drama, there is a completely realistic option of a much more variegated cast than we are usually being given.”
But he said that for Half A Sixpence, which is based on the 1905 novel Kipps by HG Wells, to have anything other than an all-white cast would be unrealistic.
Julian, who included a storyline featuring a black character in TV period drama Downton Abbey, said: “You can’t make something untruthful. My feeling is about contemporary drama and there is absolutely no reason (why there shouldn’t be diverse casting).
“But Sixpence is set in 1900 in a seaside town. You’re in a different territory.”
Julian said the Shakespearean character Othello has previously been played by white actors although now “it isn’t right any more” to do so, and that the overall consensus would be to welcome a black actor portraying Henry V, particularly on camera.
He said: “I think at times you have more latitude on the stage than you do on camera – particularly in the great classical roles.”
