Details

Kasambayi, recently arrived in the UK from the Democratic Republic of Congo, starts her contractions on the number 38 bus at Clapton Ponds, and gives the final push at Victoria. She names her daughter Hope - hope for their new life, hope for their future. Once Hope is fully grown, her path crosses with Alice, a foreign correspondent with a particular interest in Cobalt - the latest blood mineral being mined in the DRC. But will their budding friendship threaten the safety that Kasambayi has so carefully built for them in London? Meanwhile Alice Seeley-Harris, a Victorian Missionary's wife in King Leopold's Congo has a horrible sense that history is repeating itself. Possession is a tale about desire. About owning and being owned. About colonising and being colonised. And ultimately about the power of the spirit to escape oppression.

Cast/Performers

Diany Bandza (Hope Mabele), Sarah Amankwah (Kasambayi Mabele), Dorothea Myer-Bennett (Alice Young / Alice Seeley Harris), Milo Twomey (John Dent / John Harris)

Creatives/Company

Author: Sasha Hails
Producer(s): Arcola Theatre, Oscar Pearce
Director(s): Oscar Pearce, Tian Brown-Sampson (movement)
Design(s): Sarah Beaton, Leo Flint (video)
Lighting: Joseph Ed Thomas
Costume: Alexandra Kharibian
Sound: Esther Kehinde Ajayi
Other: Josephine Tremmeling (production manager)