Sancho: An Act of Remembrance

Written and performed by Paterson Joseph

Produced in association with the Oxford Playhouse

Co-directed by Simon Godwin

Music by Ben Park

Born on a slave ship in 1729, later the first black person of African origin to vote in Britain and a man of letters, Charles Ignatius Sancho led a life full of surprising, moving, and comical events. On the day Thomas Gainsborough paints his famous portrait, we discover the forgotten but true story of a black man who voiced his political opinion with wit and charm, and who dared to become a writer, a musician, a composer, and, alongside his friend David Garrick, an actor. A tour de force written and performed by Paterson Joseph—currently featured in HBO’s The Leftovers—Sancho is the compelling tale of a man who achieved the distinction of being both wholly African and wholly British.