Press Stories and Pictures

Evening Post, Mon Oct 26 1998

Main picture: Museum attendant, Lee Simon, Charles Dumas, Tab Baker

Inset: Charles Dumas

Slave play is stopped

American actors were thrown out of the Georgian House for putting on an impromptu play about the horror of slavery.

The actors, who are currently performing in the controversial play Miss Evers' Boys at the Old Vic, turned up at the elegant house as visitors.

Slave trader John Pinney built the house in the 18th century, funding it from the profits of the slave trade.

The actors made their way to the second floor of the 18th-century house where there is a display about the slave trade.

The team of four black actors and Bristol actor Jeremy McNeill, of Hotwells, then began telling visitors about the appalling way slaves were treated.

But they only got half-way through the play before they were asked to leave by staff. They continued the play outside in Great George Street.

New York actor Charles Dumas, who is descended from an Afro-Caribbean slave, said: "We wanted to tell people the truth about the house and the man who built it."

City council spokesman Barry Taylor said: "We respect people's right to express their views. However, it is odd to demonstrate against slavery in a place that explicitly educates people about the horrors of slavery. The city council has an absolute commitment to helping Bristol come to terms with the darker aspects of its history."
Bristol Evening Post, Monday October 26th 1998

Letter from Charles Dumas & Lee Simon

Evening Post Wed Oct 28 1998

We are terribly sorry that council spokesman Barry Taylor thought our improvisational play about slavery was inappropriate or rather as he put it "odd".

We assume his confusion is due to his not having witnessed it our discussing our intent with us.

We went to the Georgian House last weekend because there was a programme which purported to to demonstrate what life was like during the 18th century.

Costumed performers conducted tours and and talked about daily life in the house. However, discussion about the commerce in slaves, and the labour of the Africans, whose enforced servitude produced the wealth which built the house, was not to be included. Nor is anything about the horrors of slavery from an African point of view included in the presentation or wall display.

As direct descendants of those people and as professional actors of conscience, we sought to remedy that oversight.

A good portion of Bristol's prosperity is built upon the operation of the slave trade. It has had its residual effects in the prejudicial attitudes, African and Black economic deprivations, and inter-social conflicts in society today.

Clearly a community does not remedy the consequences of past atrocities by ignoring its root cause. Rather, we take steps to build a tolerant society respectful of the dignity of all people by uncovering, confronting and discussing these historical contradictions.

"Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it."

Respectfully submitted, Charles Dumas, Lee Simon of the Miss Evers' Boys Company.

Bristol Evening Post, Wednesday October 28th 1998

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