Original upload date: Wed, 03 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT
Archive date: Sat, 11 Dec 2021 15:44:00 GMT
OHMYGOD HEY!
In today's video I am finally bringing you up to speed on a highly contentious story that's been the talk of the theatre industry for the past two years.
Actress Seyi Omooba, who was du
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e to play Celie in The Color Purple at the Leicester Curve, was dismissed from the production after anti-LGBT Facebook posts surfaced. Two years on, she's bringing legal action against the theatre with an argument that raises a lot of questions.
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Seyi Omooba was due to play the lead character, Celie, in The Color Purple at Leicester's Curve Theatre in 2019. Ms Omooba, who is Christian, would have refused the role if she'd known the character was gay, a tribunal heard. However, her lawyers argued that Celie's sexuality was ambiguous.
Ms Omooba, from east London, was originally dismissed over comments she posted to Facebook in 2014. The 26-year-old said she did "not believe you can be born gay" and that homosexuality was wrong even "though the law of this land has made it legal".
At the time the show's producers wrote in a statement: "Following careful reflection it has been decided that Seyi will no longer be involved with the production." Ms Omooba is suing the Leicester Theatre Trust and her agents Michael Garrett Associates Ltd (Global Artists) for around £128,000 over her sacking, on the grounds of religious discrimination and a breach of contract.
