Rough Crossings

Tens of thousands of blacks in America at the start of the Revolutionary War escaped from farms, plantations, and cities to reach the British who offered the promise of emancipation in return for military service. Schama follows their odyssey through the war and into inhospitable Nova Scotia where thousands were betrayed.

Simon Schama's extraordinary novel in a new stage adaptation by Caryl Philips. As the American War of Independence reaches its climax, a plantation slave and a British Naval Officer embark on an epic journey in search of freedom. Divided by barriers of race but united in their ambitions for equality, their convictions will change attitudes towards slavery forever. Sweeping from the deep south of America to the scorched earth of West Africa, Rough Crossings is a compelling true story that marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire.Rough Crossings is a production by Headlong Theatre Company which opens at Birmingham Rep in September 2007 and tours to the Lyric Hammersmith, Liverpool Playhouse and West Yorkshire Playhouse.