From Trigger Warnings to Care Dramaturgies: Self-Care and Collective Healing in Ryan Calais Cameron’s For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy

Abstract Framed by the UK’s culture-war discourse as a threat to theatre’s impact on its audiences, content guidance strategies can be understood as part of an integrated dramaturgical practice that seeks to manifest care for performers and the public alike before, during, and after the event of theatrical production through measures including self-care guides and the employment of production dramatherapists. First staged in 2021, Ryan Calais Cameron’s For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy illustrates the connection of such practice to longer-standing traditions of feminist and anti-racist critique, as well as the ways in which care’s gender norms might be challenged as to enable both self-care and collective healing.