RIDING LIGHTS THEATRE COMPANY
with YORK THEATRE ROYAL

AFRICAN SNOW

by Murray Watts
directed by Paul Burbridge
designed by Sean Cavanagh
music by Ben Okafor
lighting design by Ben Cracknell

The Story

African Snow is the meeting of two men, cast from opposite sides into the hell of the slave trade - Olaudah Equiano, stolen from his home in West Africa, and John Newton, the converted slave-trader who later gave the world its most famous hymn, Amazing Grace.

Is bringing them face to face beyond the scope of human reason? African Snow takes us to the heart of the human condition to the place where two men are compelled to confront one another. Can victim and abuser ever be reconciled?

African Snow is an epic and passionate piece of contemporary theatre, marking the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act, and exposing an unfinished business...

The Production Team Behind African Snow

African Snow is the first co-production between York theatre companies Riding Lights and York Theatre Royal. African Snow was originally commissioned and is supported by the Church Mission Society, founded in 1799 by representatives of the abolitionist movement including William Wilberforce.

Why Should You Watch African Snow?

"Here’s a play that turns history into a pulsating human story. It could be yours. It could be mine. We begin to understand the past when we recognise that it is about real human beings like us. That way we better understand not only where we have come from but what we are doing now and where we are heading."
Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York

Aged between 11 and 25? Live in any London Borough?
SEE AFRICAN SNOW AT HACKNEY EMPIRE FOR £1

Click here to download your voucher (PDF, 141KB)

York Theatre Royal

Other show information correct as of Wed 6 December, 2006