company of angels and Polka Theatre present

Sweetpeter

September - December 2006

Medium scale

The first major new play from John Retallack since Hannah & Hanna.
Sweetpeter follows the 200-year journey of a boy born into slavery in West Africa, through his ‘liberation’ in the Province of Freedom, his gleeful brutality in Sierra Leone’s civil war, and finally to present-day London.
Shot through with magic, dynamic action and featuring original dance and music, six actors give us a fascinating sweep of history seldom discussed and very rarely staged. Sweetpeter yearns to be a young European, but can his heart and soul ever really leave Africa?
Written by John Retallack and Usifu Jalloh. Directed by John Retallack. Musical Arranger Usifu Jalloh. Choreography by Landing Mané.

I wrote Sweetpeter because of a comment I read by Richard Weight in his book, Patriots, that "in the english character liberalism and racism co-exist." I knew something of Sierra Leone and I thought that the story of that country embodied Weight’s observation.

After all, the English abolished slavery, set up a colony there and called it ‘Freedom’ – and then a century later once again enslaved the very people they had freed. Was this one of the causes that led to a civil war so brutal that almost no journalist reported it – and that only the intervention of the British army brought to a halt?

These thoughts led me to imagine a boy, Sweetpeter, who has lived through it all, from 1787 to 2004, and to express how much he feels for our country and how little we know about his. The play is also about a boy who has lost his real father and seeks a surrogate one in the English settlers. Eventually he and his mother, after much bloodshed, find the man that has been missing all their long lives.

John Retallack, Director and Co-Writer