Joy, anguish and a looming noose – take a look at fantastic pictures of Sold, the award-winning drama from Kuumba Nia Arts that tells the forgotten story of Mary Prince, a woman born into slavery in the British West Indies. Book your tickets now.
The Edinburgh Fringe hit, created by and starring Amantha Edmead, runs at VAULT Festival from 28 January to 2 February 2020.
Mary Prince was born into slavery in the British West Indies and worked tirelessly there before being taken in her last years to the UK. Her story, originally published by the anti-slavery movement of the 1800s, was popular in its day, contributing enormously to the ending of slavery, but has long been forgotten and is rarely referenced or known.
Sold uses her words and experiences to explore the harsh realities of enslavement, travelling from her childhood days as a passive survivor to later in her life when she was trying to gain her freedom and change the system that kept her enslaved.
Amantha Edmead, creator/performer of Sold
Actress and writer Edmead was inspired to create Sold after being encouraged to audition for a part in a production about slavery where none of the enslaved characters spoke about their experiences – the action and voices coming from the European characters and their perspectives. Edmead’s production tells Mary’s story using a blend of storytelling, song, dance and drumming, alongside the West African tradition of the griot, a important role in the African community that straddles being a historian, storyteller, singer, poet and musician.
Edmead is joined in the ensemble by drummer and performer Angie Amra Anderson, one of the UK’s top African arts practitioners. Sold is directed by Euton Daley, who ran Pegasus Theatre for more than 20 years and received an MBE in 2008 for his services to the Arts and Young People.
VAULT Festival, which runs from 28 January to 22 March 2020, is “London’s biggest, boldest and wildest arts and entertainment festival”. In 2019 it attracted more than 79,000 audience members to see 428 different shows staged by more than 2,000 artists.
Sold production images
