[1] The main locations are a present-day bookshop, London's Westminster Hall in 1783, and the slave ship Zong sailing from West Africa to Jamaica in 1781.
Equiano feels an empathetic connection with the experience of three women enslaved aboard the Zong, and in particular with the one who survived after being thrown into the sea.
In the opening production, the writer Giles Terera played the part of Equiano, while the onstage musical director Sidiki Dembele used traditional instruments and involved both cast and audience.
[4]Terera recognised the dramatic potential in a small detail in one of the documents concerning a person who was thrown overboard yet managed to grab a rope and pull themselves back onto the ship.
"[5] Through inspirational characters, the play became "a story of our time, celebrating the power of the human spirit against adversity, and the journey of our past to understand our place in the world".