Sing, Freetown

EMMY WINNING FILMMAKER FROM SIERRA LEONE, SORIOUS SAMURA, HAS GROWN TIRED TELLING NEGATIVE STORIES ABOUT AFRICA.

He embarks on a journey with his best friend, Sierra Leone’s most famous playwright, Charlie Haffner, to create an epic work of national theatre – a play to reclaim their country from negative media narratives and the damaging legacy of colonial rule. It doesn’t go as planned.

Sorious Samura is Sierra Leone’s best-known investigative journalist, making documentaries for CNN, Channel 4 and BBC that have won two Emmy Awards and seen him described by The Independent as “the world’s most fearless filmmaker”. Over the last 25 years, he’s tackled the toughest issues in the region including civil war, starvation, AIDS, corruption, attitudes to homosexually and more.

But Sorious has grown tired of telling negative stories about Africa and, having moved to London many years earlier, begins to realise that he is only telling half of the truth about his continent. Desperate to change the narrative, he turns to his best friend and mentor, Sierra Leone’s iconic playwright, Charlie Haffner.

These two friends embark on a journey to create an inspiring work of national theatre – to restore pride to a nation with a rich and amazing history, yet known today mostly for conflict, poverty and corruption.

It doesn’t go as planned. It becomes clear very quickly that the two men have a shared ambition but have lived very different lives. Their two cultures collide and tensions flare, as Sierra Leone itself teeters on the brink of civil unrest. For both men, the play becomes a matter of personal and national salvation.

Through increasing adversity, they push to opening night. What will happen when the curtain lifts?