The original story of the tribal rivalries of ancient Scotland, witchcraft and ghosts was set in the Western province of Zambia in the context of African folklore. The production, played by an all-black cast, made spectacular use of dance, masks and rituals offering a new perspective to the original Shakespearean work.
The play, called by the author 'a clown show' and intended for a white audience, is a complex study of the relationship between black and white people and of the struggle for dominion and liberation. Acted by black actors wearing white masks to represent white potentates, the production by Roger Blin made use of a masquerade to represent the re-enactment of the murder of a white woman, while the 'real action of the play' performed by a black actor in everyday clothes took place backstage.
Part of the commemorations for the Bicentenary of the parliamentary abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, this large scale public event included musical input from Juwon Ogungbe (composer), Alexander D Great (calypsonian), a steel band, a samba group and several groups of young people from secondary schools in Luton and surrounding towns.
This was an ‘epic musical’ exploring the history of Nana Yaa Asantewaa, queen mother of the Asante, and the role she played in the 1900 war against Britain attempting to annex Asante, on the Gold Coast of Ghana, as a colony. The production dramatised one of the most important historical moments in African resistance to British subjugation, and purposely drew on pan-African aesthetics and art traditions as a source of inspiration.
The articles referred to the 1979 edition of the Notting Hill Carnival and posed different views on this public artistic event, which in time became the largest outdoor festival in Europe.
File includes various draft proposals of the project, guidelines of the Arts4Everyone funding programme, Root n Branch mission statement, funding application to Arts4Everyone, budgets of Young People& rsquo;s Theatre Proposal.
Correspondence from and to London Weekend Television, Judy Daish Associates, Breckman and Co Chartered Accountants, and Harbottle and Lewis solicitors.
