The theatrical adaptation of Aspden’s award-winning book brings David Oluwale back to Leeds to tell his story of hope and prejudice
26 February 2009 - On 4 May 1969, the battered body of a 38-year-old Nigerian man was recovered from the River Aire in Leeds. Eighteen months later, the investigation into his death will rip apart the police force, exposing the dark side of the shiny, new city in which he died.
An optimistic, ambitious immigrant from Nigeria, David Oluwale was a showman who loved to dance. At one moment a confident young man with the world at his feet, he soon becomes a persecuted vagrant at the foot of the establishment.
Sleeping rough and with a sorry history of spells inside prison and psychiatric hospitals, he was ominously known among certain officers at Millgarth police station as their favourite "playmate". He was to become the destitute victim of police brutality.
Two officers eventually served prison sentences for assault but escaped charges of causing Oluwale's death. It remains the only case in which British policemen have been tried for killing a man of African descent, and it was brought back to the public's attention in a book by Kester Aspden, which last year won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger award for non-fiction.
Oladipo Agboluaje's adaptation, commissioned by the West Yorkshire Playhouse and the black theatre coalition Eclipse, brings David Oluwale back to Leeds to tell his story, face to face with the Scotland Yard Detective charged with investigating the case. From the prayers of his Maa’mi in Lagos and the glitter of the Mecca Dance Hall to the vagrant shelters of a city that’s trying to recreate itself, this is a story of one man searching for justice and another who just wanted to find home.
On tour in the UK from February 2009.
Click here to see the trailer on You Tube.
By Kester Aspden
Adapted for the stage by: Oladipo Agboluaje
Director: Dawn Walton
Design: Emma Wee
Lighting: Johanna Town
Sound: Mic Pool
Director: Stephen Medlin (movement)
Director: Julia Horan (casting)
Performers: Daniel Francis, Ryan Early, Clare Perkins, Steve Jackson, Howard Charles, Luke Jardine, Richard Pepple, Laura Power
Dates & Times:
Birmingham Repertory Theatre - Birmingham
25 February 2009 to 28 February 2009
19:30
£10.00 to £32.00
Everyman Theatre - Liverpool
02 March 2009 to 07 March 2009
Please check with venue
New Wolsey Theatre - Ipswich
09 March 2009 to 14 March 2009
Please check with venue
Northcott Theatre - Exeter
16 March 2009 to 21 March 2009
£12.00 to £20.00
Hackney Empire - Outer London
24 March 2009 to 28 March 2009
Please check with venue
Playhouse - Nottingham
30 March 2009 to 04 April 2009
Please check with venue