Theatre West present Children of Salt at Alma Tavern
Across the country on the same night they struck; The Children Of Salt. For thirty days they shot, hacked and beat anyone they could find. Now, years later, Kgosi and Abena have found new life in each other. But when son Ogun returns and starts to question Kgosi’s motives, doubt and paranoia begin to poison their relationship.
When you have witnessed genocide, can you ever truly find peace?
Edson Burton’s thought provoking and moving script opens the Theatre West new writing season this month, directed by Bristol-based Amanda Horlock. It is Edson’s first full professional production of his work. “ This play explores the affect genocide has on relationships, it was a story I felt needed to be told. I am really excited to be opening the Theatre West season and working with a fantastic director and actors,” says Edson.
Dr Burton’s past theatre plays include Slave Ship and rehearsed reading Devon Country (a dramatised account of the Bristol Bus Boycott) and Book of the Bit produced by Bristol Old Vic. His collection of poems, Seasoned were published in February 2009 by City Chameleon.
Edson has organised and delivered a range of Black History courses and presentations at a university and at grass roots level on the historical and contemporary Black experience. A regular performer on the South West poetry scene, he has supported Simon Armitage, Glenis Redmond, Dana Bryant and Brian Paton. He is the author of four plays for BBC Radio 4 including The Armour Of Immanuel, Corner, and the Chosen One and most recently Black and White Riot set in the St Paul’s riot. In 2007 he was commissioned to write a play to mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade: Rebel Woman that was broadcast on regional radio.
Theatre West celebrates its twentieth year producing high quality new writing theatre in Bristol, and fifty world premieres, by new and established writers, staged since the company launched in 1990
Children of Salt plays at the Alma Tavern Theatre, Bristol 21 September – 2 October.
