Assata Taught Me

Power belongs to the people. Go get yours.

2016. Havana, Cuba. While being attacked, 21-year-old Fanuco is rescued by a mysterious American woman. To him she’s simply a benevolent foreigner whose kindness could extend to giving him English lessons. Lessons that would see him escape Cuba for the United States.

What he doesn’t know is that this foreigner is Assata Shakur, an escaped convict and former Black Panther turned FBI’s Most Wanted Woman – with $2m on her head.

In this fictional two-hander, revolutionary lessons collide with generational resistance when the past is re-examined through youthful eyes. What happens when one person’s refuge is another’s prison? How does a freedom fighter become a terrorist? And is it acceptable for Fanuco’s desire to live the American Dream to be stifled by a woman who lived the American nightmare?

Almost 10 years after its world premier, experience this powerful revival of Kalungi Ssebandeke’s award-nominated debut play hailed as “pulse quickening” by Whatsonstage and “gripping” by The Guardian.