Northern Uganda. When Okumu’s village is attacked by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), he and his brother’s lives are changed forever.
Far Gone – in the Studio at York Theatre Royal on 03 and 04 March – is the story of a young boy’s journey from childhood innocence to child soldier. Seen through the eyes of those that love him and those that betray him, Okumu’s experience strikes straight at the heart through a powerful one-man performance.
John Rwothomack is a Ugandan-born, London-trained and Sheffield bred-and-based actor and director. Far Gone is the first play he has both written and performed in. It explores complex issues of war, religion and power through the story of a Ugandan child soldier and is inspired by the writer’s real life experience of nearly being kidnapped by the guerrilla rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army.
The play draws on the contrast between his experiences as a child in Uganda and the experience of being a young black man in the UK, and how perceptions of ‘Africa’ effects his own narrative. It aims to address and widen the current representation on stage of Black British narrative, particularly for BAME audiences.
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