The Meaning of Zong

Last year, Olivier-winning ‘Hamilton’ star and general polymath Giles Terera wrote and starred in this drama about the court case that followed the horrendous Zong massacre, wherein 130 enslaved Africans were thrown overboard a British slave ship that was running low on supplies. The Liverpool-based syndicate that owned the ship subsequently tried to claim for the loss of its human cargo on insurance, an action that prompted freeman Olaudah Equiano and anti-slavery campaigner Granville Sharp to sue the crew for murder – a pivotal event in Britain’s withdrawal from the slave trade. After picking up great notices for its Bristol Old Vic Run, the Tom Morris-directed ‘Meaning of Zong’ transfers to the Barbican for a limited run.