Asked for details to Janice from Britannia project

1878

The play is a dramatic adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, which came out in numerous editions and proliferated on the stage, attesting to its tremendous impact in 'the cause of slave...

Harriet Beecher Stowe adapted by Mark Lemon and Tom Taylor. Music by A. Mellon

1852

The play was performed at the time when British Navy action against slavers was at its height following the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. It depicts scenes on a slave ship, a series of...

J. T. Haines

1835

This popular comic opera was first performed in 1768 and tells the story of a rich old miser who imprisons his young wife. The play has metaphorical connections to the slavery debate through the...

Isaac Bickerstaff

1833

This tragi-comedy, based on the novella by Aphra Behn, was first performed in 1695. Oroonoko, an African prince sold into slavery, falls in love with Imoinda, also of noble birth and enslaved....

Thomas Southerne

1833

This melodrama is based on the story of the legendary Jack Mansong, an escaped Jamaican slave, who in 1780 organised a feared gang of escaped slaves and lost two of his fingers in a clash with the...

W.H. Murray (originally a pantomime by John Fawcett, 1800)

1831

This musical drama is a reworking of Oroonoko emphasising liberty as a quintessential English value. A reviewer of the time described the opera as 'a positively poor composition, yet compared with...

Thomas Morton. Music by H.R. Bishop

1816

A despondent Black slave who is about to commit suicide is transformed by magic into Harlequin and marries the White planter master’s daughter. The slave rejects the option of becoming a Noble Savage,...

James Powell, G.Male. Music by Mr Condell

1807

The production explored issues around Black identity and was set during Notting Hill Carnival. It made use of various forms of Black music to underline the differences amongst Black people, ...

Benjamin Zephaniah

1990

This musical, which later transferred to the West End, explored the life of Louis Jordan and other famous musicians of the 1940s and 1950s, in particular the role played by jazz and blues in Black...

Clarke Peters

1990

This musical play was a journey through Black history, presented in seven tableaux each with a main theme expressed through dance and songs. Amongst the many personalities presented on stage were...

Flip Fraser and J.D. Douglas. Clive Johnson (choreographer)

1987

The show is a display of traditional and ritual drumming, singing and dancing from West Africa presented by a group of Ghanaian musicians. The programme explains that Oboade means 'ancient' in the...

1973