“The Scholarship” is a new play written and performed by Denver spoken word poets and playwrights Brunt Poetry (James Brunt) and Lady Godiva (Cristina A. Bejan). Conceived as a protest play inspired by Black Lives Matter and the Rhodes Must Fall movements, “The Scholarship” aims to educate about the troubling history of racist and imperialist diamond tycoon Cecil Rhodes and the Oxford postgraduate scholarship established in his name and illustrate that what the scholarship has become (despite so many progressive changes and mutations) in no way justifies the Rhodes Trust’s insistence to continue to use the Rhodes name. The play’s final line captures the genuine motive of the playwrights: “Let’s find a name of a Rhodes Scholar whose name we can celebrate, or simply call the most famous scholarship in the world …..The Scholarship.” 2021 virtual production by Theatre29 Denver and Bucharest Inside the Beltway. 2022 rehearsed live reading in "Plays for Ukraine" festival in London produced by Kibo Productions and Baron's Court Theatre.

Social issues: racism, colonialism, British imperialism, American imperialism, power, elites, decolonization, education

Script is available upon request from playwright Cristina A. Bejan. You can email her at bejan.cristina@gmail.com