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 held captive in Portchester 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. But do we really hold the key? What dark forces are still currently at play?

In October 1796 a fleet of ships from the Caribbean carrying over 2,500 prisoners-of-war, who were mostly Black or mixed-race, began to arrive in Portsmouth Harbour. By the end of that month, almost all of them were held at Portchester Castle, accompanied by their families. About 100 women and children were sent to live nearby.

The Ancestors is a site-specific play by Lakesha Arie-Angelo that explores the grounds of Portchester Castle and the voices of Black revolutionaries imprisoned therein that history forgot. It was commissioned by the National Youth Theatre as part of Freedom and Revolution, a collaboration with English Heritage’s Shout Out Loud Programme and University of Warwick aimed at shining a new light on the lives of these prisoners with the participation of local young people.

The Ancestors is published in Methuen Drama’s Plays For Young People Age series which offers suitable plays for young performers at schools, youth groups and youth theatres that have each had premiere productions by young performers in the UK.