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TheOrator.Press Theatre Review Page: Why Didn’t I Get Married? This Play, Possesive of Clever Twists And Turns, Delivers One of The Most Poignant Lines In The History of Relationship Plays & Powerful Insights From The Male Perspective. February 2026
Shame Then That It Settles For Offering No Real Solutions To An Age Old Cultural Problem, Except’ For Encouraging Black Women To Accept’ Settling.
Host Church To Seven Day Adventist Playwright Alan Charles And His First Ever Associate Seminar (Friday January 31st 2026) On His Comedy Play ‘Why Didn’t I Get Married?’
Standards @beyonce: Beyonce’s Approach Is Exemplary: “If You Like It You Better Put A Ring On It.” So Jay Z Did Just That! NB: In His 2009 Book ‘Act Like A Lady Think Like A Man’ (Which Later Became A 2012 Movie) Comedian Steve Harvey Talks About The Importance of Standards. He Wrote The Book Because His Female Friends Kept Asking Him For Relationship Advice As A Happily Married Man, Married To Majorie For Decades @iamsteveharveytv
Denzel And Paulette Washington Have One of The Longest Marriages In Hollywood (43 Years, Having Married In 1983). They Are Both Practicing Christians, With Denzel Known For Regularly Imparting Wise Words Based On Christain Teaching. They Have Four Kids (Including Twins) All Also In The Movie Business. First Born Son @John David RWashington Received A Golden Globe Nomination For His Role In Spike Lee’s Undercover Cop Movie ‘The BlacKKKlansman’ @violadavis Has Previously Openly Shared That She Prayed For A Good Man And Then Julius Tennon Came Along. 12 Years Older And Two Kids From A Previous Relationship Julius Married Viola In 2003. Shortly Afterwards They Subsequently Adopted A Young Girl Together. This Year Mrs Sabrina Elba Officially Became A Lady. Lady Elba That Is, After Husband Idris Elba Was Knighted For His Services To The Film Industry (Which He Got Into With A Grant From The Kings Trust Back In The Day When It Was The Prince’s Trust). Sir And Lady Elba Married In April 2019 And Have Become Goodwill Ambassadors To The United Nations As Well As Being Very Focused on African Development. Meanwhile Living Legend And Media Mogul Oprah Winfrey @oprah Is A Deeply Spiritual Person And Has Been Going Steady’ With Her Partner Steadman For Decades. Yet They’ve Never Married!
In Charles’ Popular Play The Answer To The Question Has A New Addition; The Missing Men Are Either Murdered, Imprisoned, Unemployed, With White Women – Or Now – With ‘White Men’ – Courtesy of One of The Play’s Comic Twists. It’s Cleverly Written. With Bold Honesty And Insight The Writer And Director Has Added Homosexuality To The Mix And Acknowledged The Reality Within The LGBT Community That Mixed Race Relationships Exist – Just As They Do Within The Hetrosexual Community.
Having Witnessed Him In Action, Alan Charles, Is Clearly A New Age Church Leader, (Can I Get An “Amen” or An “Ouch” He Calls Out Passionately, To Which The Congregation Reply Enthusiastically). But When We Spoke With Him After His Debut Seminar Session Associated With The Play, He Told Us He Sees Himself More of A Writer Rather Than A Pastor. [For More On That See Our Interview With This Charismatic, Married, Seven Day Adventist, Social Commentator, Also In This Month’s Issue – February 2026].
The Play ‘Why Didn’t I Get Married?’ Pulled In A Full House At The Hackney Empire On Sunday February 1st 2026. Clearly The Community Still Cares About This Question. Men And Women Were In The Auditorium. Black Couples. Singles. And Groups of Theatre Goers. Black And White. Old And Young.
The Play Is Amongst A Handful of One-off Performances Around The Country That Continues This January And February, Having Started Last July. The Next Performance Takes Place At The Broadway Theatre Sunday February 15th 2026. It Sold Out Last Time It Was There At The End of Last Year, In December.
This Play, Possesive of Clever Poignant Twists And Turns, Delivers One of The Most Thought Provoking Lines In Black British Theatre History & A Powerful Insight Into The Male Perspective. It’s A Shame Then That It Settles For Offering No Real Solutions To An Age Old Cultural Problem, Except For Encouraging Black Women To Accept ‘Settling’ For Less Than What They Were Expecting. Hell No! Surely We Mus’ Can All Do Better!
The Titular Question of The Play Is Poised By A Presentable Upstanding ‘Big’ UNMARRIED, CHILDLESS, CHRISTIAN WOMAN. (‘Big’ Meaning “Mature” & “Grown” & “Middle-Aged” In The Caribbean Vernacular). This Comedic Yet Authentic Play Is Nonetheless Written By A Presentable, Upstanding, ‘Big’, MARRIED, CHRISTIAN, FATHER. It’s A Very Clever Literary Combination. Intelligent, Insightful, Brave, But Necessary, And Somewhat Empathetic.
But Not Totally Empathetic. Because What It’s Really Asking Is ‘Whose Fault Is It?’ That So Many Black Women (Virtually A Whole Generation or Two) Have Not Jumped The Broom?
May God Bless Writer Alan Charles For Caring Enough And Being Courageous Enough To Bring The Issue To The World’s Attention. And Also For The Associate Seminars He’s Running (Within The Church) To Tackle The Problem. Notwithstanding He Himself Is SDA (Seven Day Adventist) His Seminars Run Throughout Different Christian Church Demoninations, Inviting Different Opinions And Points of View From Concerned And Interested Parishioners.
TheOrator.Press(TO.P), Attended The First Ever Seminar Late January, To Witness The Debate In Motion. There Was A Great Turnout At A Lovely, Welcoming And Relaxed Church In Brixton. The Debate Was Heartfelt And Saw Contributions From Both Men And Women. As Well As, A Related Personal Story From One of The Senior Bishops.
The Parishioners Reflected The Fact That The Situation Is At Crisis Point As The Very Foundation of The Black Family Unit Fallen Apart In Some Quarters. Many Put That Down To The Lack of Male Influence And Guidance In The Family Home, Due To Absent Fathers. Meanwhile Black And Brown Families Are Under Attack From The Racial Hatred Being Spewed From The MAGA Re-Trumplican White House And The British And US Police Before That.
The Two Parent Black Family Unit Is A Big Issue Right Now.
United We Stand. Divded We Fall.
Slavers Knew It. ICE Knows It. That’s Why They Ripped And Continue To Rip Husbands Away From Wives, Fathers Away From Children, Mothers Away From Children, And Black Families Apart Generally.
But In Times of Peace And Normality, When Democracy Is At Its Finest, Frankly The Question Remains:
Firstly, Generally Speaking Why Are So Many Black Women Progressing In Society At A Higher Rate Than Black Men?
And
Secondly, Generally Speaking Why Are So Many Beautiful And Presentable Black Women Unmarried To Black Men?
Addressing Questions One And Two Is Essential, As These Problems Are Having A Knock-On Effect And Impacting Other Elements of Black Society, Not Just The Black Church, Which Is Just A Symptom of The Wider Problem.
Church Leader And Writer Alan Charles Specifically Asks Why Are So Many Black Church Women Are Not Married To Black Church Men? Consequently The Play’s Question Centres Around The Premise That There’s Not Enough Black Men In The Black Church From The Christian Womens’ POV.
You’re Not Willing To Get Involved With A Man Who Is Forty-Six And Still Lives A Home With His Mother,
But
You Are Willing To Get Involved With A Man Who Is Married And Still Lives At Home With His Wife And Kids!
A Powerful And Poignant Retort From A A Rejected Man ‘Friend-Zoned’ In The Play ‘Why Didn’t I Get Married’?
Hackney Empire Sunday February 1st 2026
So These Women Sue The Church By Launching A Class Action Law Suit For “Church Hurt” And “Involuntary Singledome”.
The Court Setting Is Clever Because It Provides A Platform Within Which To Examine And Cross-Examine Who Is Really To Blame For The Lack of Eligible Black Men In The Church. The Audience Is Encouraged To Interact!
The Problem With Legal Action of Course Is That One’s Dirty Laundry Is Washed In Public.
This Is Why Often Legal Cases Settle – Often Last Minute – On The Steps of The Court As Going To Law Can Be A High Stakes Game of Legal Poker. In This Case Comedy Ensues And There’s More Joker Than Poker As Secrets Are Spilt.
“Many A True Word Said In Jest” So The Saying Says,And It Does Seem, Despite The Comedy, That The Play Is Underminingin Black Women Rather Than Addressing The Deeper Issues of Why Black Men Are Lagging Behind And What Can Be Done To Close The Gap Between Black Men And Women When It Comes To Progression.
Surely It All Starts In The Home With Teaching Discipline. Not Parental Oppression But Parental Responsibility Exercised At Home, Through Discipline, Quality, And Exemplary Child-Rearing.
Ideally With Both Parents In Attendance From The Start.
A Lackadaisical ‘Baby-Mother’ ‘Baby-Father’ Approach of Some Men, Involving Just Sexing A Woman With No Intention of Doing Much More Than That, Then Abandoning Parental Responsibility Afterwards When The Inevitable Happens. This Together With Some Women Allowing Themselves To Tolerate That Man’s ‘Fxxk & Fxxk Off’ Approach In The First Place, Is Arguably Not The Best Example To Set A Young Black Boy.
Young Boys Need Strong Roles Models. If One Expects To Instil In A Sense of Responsibility And Having To Become An Upstanding Christain Man, Within The Church or Society At Large, It’s Imperative To Remember That Children Learn By Examples.
Instead It Has Been Argued That It Makes Him Ripe For Picking By Gangs Leaders To Whom He Looks Up To As A Male Role Model In The Absence of His Own Father.
Then There’s The Attitude To Education. That Too Stems From Discipline At Home. As Does The Issue of Standards, A Child’s Personal Development, Self-Motivation And Ambition. Surely That’s The Way A Society Raises Fine Young Black Men Worthy of Fine Young Black Women. Indeed Black Men And Women of Any Age. After All, Other Cultures Manage It. It’s Not Rocket Science. But Yes, It Does Take A Village.
In That Sense, Connecting With The Community Means More Vocies, Perspectives And Real-Talk Are Naturally Included, Therefore Developing The Play’s Associate Seminars And Digesting The Feedback May Prove An Instructive Path To Progress. Either Way, Something Needs To Change. And That Something Is Not Women And Girls Lowering There Standards. It’s Men And Boys Raising There Game. Some Way, Some How.
It Must Be Said Connecting The Play And The Seminars In This Way Is Such A Divine Piece of Very Impressive Marketing. Similarly The Possibilites For Research And Development Have Great Potential.
For Instance It Is Worth Noting The Play Purports That Black Men Outnumber Black Women 7 To 1. It Doesn’t State The Source of That Data or Nor Explore What Caused The Great Disparity Behind Those Figures (But It Would Be Good To Know). This Is One To Watch! It’s A Hot Issue.
The Play Is Funny, Cleverly Written And Includes Some Great Acting.
The Male Lawyer, Marcus Lawson (For The Defence On Behalf of The Church) Played By Courtney Hoilett, The Female Lawyer, Played By The Model, Actress And Producer Misie Goode (For The Prosecution By The Black Christian Women) @sistamqueen, The Stooshy Social Influencer-Come-Presenter, Lisa Johnson, Played By Eugenie Burton And The Drunken Ex-Wife And Domestic Abuse Survivor, Played By @Vie_Watson (Who Made Her Stage Debut In The Play Last Summer & Is 31 Years Happily Married In Real Life) – All Especially Stood Out.
Overall This Was A Great Cast Clearly In Tune With Each Other.
“Why Didn’t I Get Married?” Is A Very Real Question That’s Been Poised By Many A’ Black Woman For Decades. It Can Start In Latter Child-Bearing Years. And Sadly It Can Continue Later Into The Biological-Change-Transitional Years, By Which Time Natural Child-Birth Is No Longer A Possibility. [Although Child-Rearing Through Fostering or Adoption May Still Be An Option].
Too Many Fine Black Women Wonder What The Hell (Sorry) Happened? Bright, Smart, Presentable, Intelligent, Sociable, Spiritual, Loving, Sisters, Who Expected One Day They’d Get Married And Start A Family. Have Suffered The Hurt At Some Point of Having The Dynamics of Their Social Reality Hit Home. Forcing Them To Realize That Finding Their Spiritual, Social, Intellectual Equal, Worthy of Being Considered Eligible Marriage-Material Seems Ever Impossible. But Why?
This Question Or A Version of It, Was Being Asked On The Winfrey Show At Least Two Generations Ago Back In The 90s And Noughties By Perplexed Beautiful Single African-American Women Across The Pond. The Trailblazing Media Mogul Announced The Missing Men Were Either Murdered, Imprisoned, Unemployed, Or With White Women.
Now The Question Is Being Asked Again In Theatre Format At Select Venues Across England, Thanks To Alan Charles. The Staging And Setting May Have Changed, But The Cultural Social Problem Sadly Remains The Same.
A Long Hard Look At The Culture, The Systems, The Policies, The Short-Comings Compared To The Achievements And The Successes, Is Necessary If There Is Going To Be A Fruitful, Effective, And Innovative Reset For Future Generations of Fine Black Boys And Fine Black Girls And Fine Black Two Parent Families Delivering Great Legacies.
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