FAR GONE PLAY
“If I invited you to come with me on journey, a story, will you come with me?”
Northern Uganda. When Okumu’s village is attacked by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), he and his brother’s lives are changed forever.
Writer & Actor | John Rwothomack
Director | Moji Elufowoju
Developed at Sheffield Theatres | Theatre Deli
Far Gone is a profoundly moving 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.
Inspired by my real-life experience of nearly being kidnapped by the guerrilla rebel group The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) led by Joseph Kony in Uganda, it draws on the contrast between my 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 & widen the current representation on stage of Black British experience, particularly for BAME audiences.
Photography by Smart Banda
Review
“ Rwothomack and director Moji Elufowoju create in this play a physical language that transmits the characters’ emotional states more succinctly than words can.”
Behind The Story
As a little boy, aged eight, I was nearly kidnapped from my home in Northern Uganda by the rebel group, The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) led by the notorious Joseph Kony. Ten years later while studying in my first year of drama school, I was stunned to see a video by Invisible Children, an American NGO calling for the capture of Joseph Kony. The video entitled ‘Kony 2012’ would become a viral phenomenon, except that it came far, far, too late. In order to reclaim the narrative, I conceived an idea and seven years later, Far Gone was written and came to life.
Trailer
This play is not about me, the kid who was lucky enough to escape. This play is for the hundreds of thousands who did not. For the parents whose children were either lost forever or forever changed. For the young girls who were forced to marry men old enough to be their fathers. For the brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces, nephews, sons and daughters who lost the innocence of childhood, simply for being born at an unfortunate time in an unfortunate place. For the future generations who will continue to suffer the trauma the LRA has imprinted on them, for many years to come.
Audience Feedback
“A fusion of sensibility, intelligence and artistry”
“Wow Spell Binding”
“Outstanding, exhausting, impressive, skillful, important”
Credit: www.justiceandreconciliation.org
The Women’s Advocacy Network
Supporting war affected women
The Women’s Advocacy Network (WAN) of the Justice and Reconciliation Project (JRP) is a forum where more than 900 war-affected women and men come together to advocate for justice, acknowledgement and accountability for sexual- and gender-based violations inflicted upon them during conflicts in northern Uganda.
Interviews
It takes a lot more than one person to put a production together. I am passionate about collaborating with talented artists that look to challenge our perceptions of theatre and re-imagining how it connects us to the world around us. Here are a few thoughts from our director and producer.
Our Partners
The play is developed in partnership with Theatre Deli and Sheffield Theatres Making Room. It has been collaboratively developed mainly with a Sheffield-based creative team. We use a research-based creative process that fuses movement and traditional African oral storytelling with the sounds and harmonies of Ugandan music and spiritual songs.
