Giles Terera on ‘The Meaning of Zong’

The Meaning of Zong is the debut play from writer, director, filmmaker, musician and award-winning star of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, Giles Terera.

It charts the harrowing story 200 years ago of a massacre on board the slave ship Zong, and the subsequent actions of two men: Olaudah Equiano and Granville Sharp, that eventually gave rise to the abolition movement in the UK.

Commissioned by Bristol Old Vic and the National Theatre, the play was originally planned for 2020, when the pandemic saw it quickly repurposed as a radio play for Radio 3 as part of the BBC’s ‘Lights Up’ campaign for closed theatres.

Two years on, it will finally be getting the stage production for which it was intended. Opening on April 2, the production is co-directed by Tom Morris, and features a cast led by Terera as Olaudah Equiano and Paul Higgins as Sharp.

On stage music will be performed by Sidiki Dembele, with projection from Will Duke with Tom Newell of Limbic Cinema.

Bristol24/7 met with Terera to hear his thoughts on the importance of telling this story in Bristol, and the ways in which it might serve to inspire others to enact positive change in their own lives:

Giles Terera and company in rehearsal for The Meaning of Zong, Bristol Old Vic -photo: Curtis Richard

Can you tell a little about your debut play, The Meaning of Zong, and what drove you to write it?

“The play is about some events that took place on board a British slave ship in the 18th century, called The Zong. 132 of the Africans were thrown into the sea in order that the ship’s owners might claim the insurance on them when they got back to Liverpool.

“This came to the attention of two men in London: Granville Sharp – the so-called ‘father of abolition’, and Olaudah Equiano. When the insurers appealed the judgement, it goes to trial, and Sharp and Equiano enlist a third person, a shorthand writer, to go with them to this trial and document it. Rather than representing individuals, which is what Sharp had been doing, this was the first time they had an opportunity to bring the full horror of the transatlantic slave trade to the general public, who at that point are largely unaware of what exactly is involved in it.

“After the trial, they take that story and go and tell it everywhere: they go to the church, they go to parliament, they go to the admiralty – everywhere, and let know people that this happened. Their campaign starts to work, and within three decades slavery is done. He was right at the beginning of it all. And this is why 200 years later, we’re here talking about it now.”

Rehearsals for The Meaning of Zong, Bristol Old Vic – photo: Curtis Richard

In what way did the story change between the radio play and staging it for the theatre?

“I knew I wanted to do it on stage, because it takes place in three different locations, and in three different time zones; we’re in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, and it takes place now (we start it in the library), then we go back to 1783 when the trial is happening, and then to the massacre itself, which happens in 1781.

“You need a form which is nimble enough to go from here, to there, to there. You can do that in movies but the audience isn’t involved in the same way. So I knew I wanted to tell the story in a theatre, and therefore it was going to be about visuals, and images that we’re seeing, to help make those leaps.

“For the radio, obviously you don’t have that. We also had to truncate it, since we only had an hour, whereas the play is an hour and a half. That’s always good though, because it allows you to sharpen up what the story is, and it forces you to be clear about the perspective that you’re telling the story from at any given moment. So doing it on the radio was actually really useful. It made me re-assess how I’m telling the story – either visually, or verbally, and not to take anything for granted.

Giles Terera and Paul Higgins in rehearsal for The Meaning of Zong, Bristol Old Vic – photo: Curtis Richard

Can you describe the role that music plays in the narrative?

“I knew there had to be music throughout the play, because music was massively important to my community in Africa; it was also vital on the ships. For practical purposes, the ships were run from beats, and songs, and shanties, and music was important to Granville Sharp and Olaudah Equiano, too, who were both musicians. And again, music can unify when you are jumping around between different worlds and locations.

“There was also an interesting opportunity which we didn’t have on the radio, but in the theatre you can see the music being made, by the storytellers. It was very important to me to put the story in a theatre where the audience were part of the storytelling process, so they could look at it and think ‘what would I do in that situation?’

“If someone came to you and said this horror had happened, how would you react? Music and staging are tools to help the audience to feel like part of the process. And if they feel like part of the process, they should also feel like part of the dilemma within the story, hopefully.”

Sidiki Dembele and Eliza Smith in rehearsal for The Meaning of Zong, Bristol Old Vic – photo: Curtis Richard

What does it mean to be putting this story on in this time, and specifically in Bristol?

“Obviously, I would say – because of Bristol’s history, but actually I wasn’t completely aware of Bristol’s history. This is part of why I wanted to tell the story. I knew that Bristol was involved in the transatlantic slave trade, but I didn’t know to what extent, and I didn’t know how much of the city was built on all of that.

“When the slave trade is abolished, there was a massive bailout, which the government paid out to all of these former traders. I had no idea about that at all. That’s why I think it’s important to tell this story, not just because it’s a piece of history, but because we are still living in that legacy now.

“This theatre, the Bristol Old Vic was built at exactly the same time the Zong was happening. Olaudah Equiano wrote a book a couple of years after the Zong, and embarked on an incredible book tour, largely paid for by subscribers, which was a brilliant idea. Some of his subscribers were the very same people who put money into the Bristol Old Vic at the same time. We know that. So there’s an imperative to really be able to link up what was happening then to what’s happening now.

“And the more I looked into it, the more I saw we’re still living it. Our class system, our education system, our financial system – all of the systems that we live with were basically created and massively influenced by that period in the late 18th century. We’re living it. But it isn’t really known about, hence why statues have to be pulled down, because we aren’t talking about it enough; we don’t really acknowledge it. So here in Bristol is very important. It’s the right place to be staging this play. That’s why we’re going to Liverpool, and why we’re going to Scotland too.”

Company in rehearsal for The Meaning of Zong, Bristol Old Vic – photo: Curtis Richard

What are your hopes for what this play might achieve in the minds of the audiences who come to see it?

“I want everyone to come, obviously. Because whether you do something about the wrongs in your society or not; whether you stay silent or not; whether you use your power as an individual or not: what you stand up for, and what’s important to you – that’s what happens in the Zong. Every one of the characters is faced with a dilemma where they must decide: ‘what are we going to do?’

“I would hope that people would come and see the story, and be inspired on one level to know their own power as an individual to do something about their equivalent now, whatever that is – whether it’s Grenfell Tower, Ukraine, immigrants coming over from Europe; children in their hundreds of thousands having to rely on food banks.

Whatever your ‘Zong’ is, which encapsulates any kind of wrong in our society; you have the power to do something about it. Because we had three people in the Zong story, who were completely up against it. The establishment didn’t want to know; the slave trade was far too important to the British economy – no one wanted to know anything about it. They were completely up against it in a way which is hard to imagine now. And yet, they persisted and persisted and persisted, and we’re here, now talking about it. So for me it’s an inspirational story about the power of the individual to affect the world that you’re living in.

Michael Elcock, Sidiki Dembele and Eliza Smith in rehearsal for The Meaning of Zong, Bristol Old Vic – photo: Curtis Richard

You pitch the play as a celebration of the strength of those who can enact positive, radical change, as well as a story that overcomes the homogeneity of narratives about ‘the enslaved’. Can you expand on that?

“It’s a tough thing to tell, and it’s not a story which our society is very actively willing to explore, which makes it tricky, but the work we’ve been doing is really inspiring and I’m excited to see how audiences are going to respond to it. We’re used to the sadness; we already know about the triggering horror of it. Instead, my emphasis is to ask how you can build, and move forward from that.

“I also wanted to tell the story in a way which I don’t often see told. I think we like to pigeonhole the stories that we hear, especially about people of colour, whereas for me, what attracted me to the story was the idea that it was about a diverse group of people who were trying to do this. It’s not a story just about black people, or white people.

“I get used to the homogenised view of ‘the Africans’ whereas one of the interesting things about this story is it shows you how it that they came from different places in Africa; from different tribes; they held different beliefs. And they had to learn how to communicate themselves. All of that reflects the world that I’m living in now, and I hope audiences will respond to that.

“At the same time, at the heart of it it’s not just about the three people who try to get the truth out, but the story includes two Africans who are mentioned in the transcript from the trial.

“One was elected by the group to speak on their behalf to the sailors during the massacre, and could speak English. And then the first mate says that one of the Africans that was thrown into the sea somehow managed to grab hold of a rope and pull themselves back up onto the ship. I think that person walked off the ship and lived to be 100 years old. I imagine that every year at some point, their grandchildren would say ‘tell us again about how you got here, and you were pulled across the sea?’. And by the time they finished telling that story, the whole community would be gathered round. Originally, that’s where I started the story.

“I hope people can take inspiration from that, and think ‘look what those two people did on the ship, and those three people did to tell their story, what can I do?’”

The Meaning of Zong is at Bristol Old Vic from April 2-May 7 (a split run of April 2-9 and April 26-May 7, at 7.30pm, with additional Saturday matinee shows at 2.30pm. Tickets are available at www.bristololdvic.org.uk, with a two-for-one ticket deal available for performances in April thanks to the National Lottery’s Love your Local Theatre campaign.

Main photo: Curtis Richard

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