Call Mr. Robeson, an award-winning play which received a standing ovation at New York’s Carnegie Hall in February 2012 and was staged in London’s West End in October 2013, is to be performed at The Seagull on Sunday May 4, 2014.

This rollercoaster journey through actor/singer Paul Robeson’s remarkable life highlights how his radical activism caused his downfall. It features some famous songs (including a dramatic rendition of Ol’ Man River), some of his speeches, and a defiant testimony to McCarthy’s Senate House Un-American Activities Committee.

Written and performed by Liverpool-based playwright and singer Tayo Aluko with piano accompaniment by Bungay-based Jason Collins, Call Mr. Robeson was chosen by The Guardian’s theatre critic Michael Billington as his top pick for things to see in London in January 2011.

It has sold out several established theatres around the UK, including the Lowry Studio, Belgrade Coventry, Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre, The Bolton Octagon, and most famously at the last ever performance at Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre in June 2011 before it was closed down for redevelopment. During October 2014, it enjoyed a 4-week residency at the Tristan Bates Theatre in Covent Garden, whereBBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends presenter Clive Anderson was it and later described it as one of the most memorable plays he had seen in 2013.

Among the many awards in the Call Mr. Robeson cabinet, the latest was won at the Atlantic Fringe in Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada in August 2013, where from an international field it was awarded Best Musical Performance. It also won Best Solo Show at the Stratford-upon-Avon Fringe in 2013 and the Argus Angel Award for Artistic Excellence and the Best Male Performer Award at the Brighton Fringe in 2008.

What
Call Mr. Robeson. A Life, With Songs. Written and performed by Tayo Aluko, with Jason Collins, Piano.
Directed by Olusola Oyeleye, Designed by Phil Newman

When
Sunday, May 4, 7.30 pm

Show length: 80 minutes (no interval)

Where
The Seagull, Morton Road, Pakefield, Lowestoft NR33 0JH

Tickets
£10 (£8 concessions)
Box Office: 01502 589726
www.theseagull.co.uk

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