The Ancestors

A clique of Caribbean maroon warrior women,

A general of Haiti and his right-hand man,

An ex-enslaved couple reclaiming their land,

A group of Black French Caribbean soldiers and their wives travelling across the Atlantic to be reunited with them.

These are the Ancestors: manifesting in our world, in the hopes we can stop history repeating itself.

The Ancestors play, film and performance started out as Freedom and Revolution – a project we launched in the summer of 2020 in partnership with the National Youth Theatre and researchers from the University of Warwick.

Taking new research about Portchester castle, a 1807 play “The Revolutionary Philanthropist”, and a group of young performers from the NYT and local youth groups, we created The Ancestors.

A site specific play and performance that switched the focus away from the original colonial male perspective of “The Revolutionary Philanthropist”, and retold the story of the Haitian prisoners of war from a Black female point of view.

Head over to the Freedom and Revolution project page for an in depth look at the history and how the first phases of the project went.

Freedom and Revolution

The Ancestors

An original play was written as a result of the Freedom and Revolution project by Lakesha Arie-Angelo.

Members of the NYT along with directors Jade Lewis and Mumba Dodwell came together with the aim of a live performance at Portchester Castle in summer 2021. The play was written with the site in mind and involved the cast and audience moving around the site to various scene locations.

Unfortunately, due to Covid the live performances were not able to go ahead and so began the task of taking the play from a live performance to a feature length film!

The film premiered in St Mary’s Church, in the Portchester Castle grounds on the 29th October 2022 to an audience that included family and friends of the performers and local residents. The event comprised of an exclusive Q&A with some of the cast, crew and historians as well as a first look at the film.

During the Q&A, composer and sound designer Romarna Campbell highlighted that the prisoners whose history the play was based on would have heard the same bells ringing in the church that we did that evening.

The film will have a limited run online in 2023, keep an eye out for more info.

The Descendants

At the same time we also wanted to capture the experiences of the young performers and crew involved in the production of The Ancestors and how it affected them and their perception of heritage.

Filmed by Jay Jones and Phoebe Fleming, the full documentary will be available here and on YouTube in the coming months.

The Monologues

As part of the development process for ‘The Ancestors’ we created a series of monologues and were able to film them thanks to our partnership with Google Arts and Culture. There is even more information about the project and some 360 views of Portchester over on the Google Arts and Culture pages about the project.

The Sea Does Not Agree With Me

Original Monologue written and performed by Hana.

This Doesn't Look Like Home

Original Monologue written and performed by Naila.

Mamma's Candle

Original Monologue written and performed by Tatenda.

I Don't Belong Here

Original Monologue written and performed by Lauren-Deanna.

Tu Lucha Es Me Lucha

Original Monologue written and performed by Anna.

Go behind the scenes on Google Arts and Culture