The first repertory season, 1967-1968, was not without controversy. The company presented "Summer of the Seventeenth Doll" by Australian playwright Ray Lawler; "Kongi's Harvest" by Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka, "Daddy Goodness" by Richard Wright, and as their first play, "Song of the Lusitanian Bogey" by Swedish-German playwright Peter Weiss. The Weiss play addresses the oppression of black people from an international perspective, set in colonized Angola. Some black activists protested, accusing NEC of taking "white money" and for producing the work of a white playwright. On one occasion, activists attempted to storm the theatre during a performance of the Weiss play. Soon afterward, the NEC production of "Song of the Lusitanian Bogey" in London created further controversy, where the company was heckled by right-wing protesters who resented the play's anti-imperialist message.