Greenwich Theatre celebrates historic figures on stage
If you said the name Charles Ignatius Sancho to most south east Londoners, you would likely be met with a blank stare – but a large part of the historical figure’s story unfolded in Greenwich and Blackheath.
Born on a slave ship at sea, Sancho was sold into slavery in a Spanish colony in what is now part of modern day South America, but by the age of two his life had already taken a major turn, with his parents both dead and Sancho taken to England and ‘gifted’ to three sisters living together in Greenwich.
He lived there for eighteen years before running away, but he only got as far as Montagu House in Blackheath where the 2nd Duke of Montagu took him in, employed him as a butler, taught him how to read and encouraged an interest in literature.
A period followed as a servant in the household, and then as a shopkeeper and writer, and he quickly became involved in the British abolitionist movement. His status as a property-owner meant he was legally qualified to vote in a general election, and he became the first known British African to vote in Britain.
This September, star of stage and screen Paterson Joseph is set to perform an enthralling account of Sancho’s remarkable life on stage at Greenwich Theatre. Having won the RSL Christopher Bland Prize and The Historical Writer’s Association Debut Novel Prize in 2023 for his acclaimed novel The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho, now Joseph brings us a show which combines biography with dramatised readings from his novel.
Sancho & Me – For One Night Only promises to be an unmissable evening of storytelling with themes stemming from Ignatius Sancho’s 18th century letters, intersecting with Paterson’s own story of growing up Black and British.
This is a vital story connecting the life of a black man in the transatlantic world from nearly three hundred years ago with a modern-day black life lived in today’s UK.
As well as writings by both Sancho and Joseph, the show uses Sancho’s own compositions fused with original music by co-creator, composer and musician Ben Park.
“I first came across Charles Ignatius Sancho in 1999” said Joseph. “Born and raised in London, by my mid-thirties I had no idea there were thousands of Black Britons in the UK long before the famous ‘Windrush Generation’ who arrived in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. I cannot overstate the powerful sense of belonging this knowledge brought me. My desire is to spread that sense of rootedness through spreading the word far and wide: Britain has always been a multi-ethnic country and Black People have been a major part of that story.”
Then, later in the season at Greenwich Theatre but echoing many of the same themes, Live Wire Theatre’s Our Little Hour again tells a biographical story, this time of the legendary, pioneering, black footballer – Walter Tull.
Commissioned by Show Racism The Red Card and produced in association with Live Wire Theatre, Our Little Hour explores how Walter Tull – grandson of a Barbadian slave and orphaned at eight years old – rose to prominence against all the odds.
The first black footballer to play at the highest level of the domestic game in the UK, Tull went on to achieve yet another historic breakthrough as the first man of his heritage to be commissioned as an Officer in the British Army. Tragically killed in action just a few weeks before the end of World War 1, Walter Tull’s pioneering achievements have earned him a distinguished place in British history but, like Sancho, not enough people know his story. Hopefully these two productions can move us a little bit closer to righting that wrong.
Sancho & Me – For One Night Only plays at Greenwich Theatre on 11 September, with Our Little Hour following on 22 & 23 October.
Tickets are available now at www.greenwichtheatre.org.uk
Photo credit Paterson Joseph