Mustapha Matura
Trinidadian Playwright
and Poet

ABOUT MUSTAPHA MATURA

Mustapha Matura (17 December 1939 – 29 October 2019), born Noel Mathura, was an award-winning Trinidadian playwright living in London. Characterised by critic Michael Billington as “a pioneering black playwright who opened the doors for his successors”, Matura was the first British-based dramatist of colour to have a play in London’s West End, with Play Mas in 1974. Matura was revered for his witty and often political plays set in his home country including Playboy of the West Indies, Three Sisters and Rum and Coca-Cola. He was a prolific creator of things: screenplays, short stories, poems, sketches, paintings and songs, all inspired by his eclectic life story and curiosity about people and life.

A friend from his school days recalled that even as a boy Matura had been a storyteller. “We used to call him the Rakeman, because he was always raking in stories about what was going on,” he told The Sunday Times in 1974.