Bristol Old Vic have today announced that Giles Terera’s debut play, The Meaning of Zong, has been postponed until next Spring.

The piece was originally scheduled to premiere at the Bristol venue from 11 September -2 October 2021 but will now take place from 2 April-7 May and will include a live-broadcast as part of Bristol Old Vic’s ongoing digital theatre offer.

Artistic Director Tom Morris said: “We will continue to work on our production of Giles’ brilliant and prophetic play, but the combination of the Government’s failure to manage levels of COVID infection levels, their adherence to the rules of isolation until 16 August and the failure to release the prepared insurance scheme for theatres has made it impossible for us to create the show within its announced dates this September.

“It’s hard to be critical of a government which has been clear about the value of our national creativity and the businesses it sustains, and incisive in the investment of the Cultural Recovery Fund to protect it.  But the management of the opening-up of the economy has been farcical.

“The removal of restrictions (which has facilitated a massive summer surge in infections), suggests that the risk from rising COVID numbers is low.  Strict adherence to isolation rules on top of this (ham-stringing businesses across the economy) suggests the risk from rising COVID is high. Government doesn’t appear know its own mind.  The failure to reconcile these contradictions is causing widespread disruption across the economy (not just in theatre), crashing our faith in the Test and Trace system, and causing a frightening rise in infection rates.”

Bristol Old Vic’s Executive Director Charlotte Geeves explains: “The impact of the “pingdemic” on rehearsal rooms across the country is seismic. At any point, half the company might be instructed to isolate for 10 days, interrupting rehearsals, delaying the show’s completion and increasing costs beyond recovery. With infection rates in Bristol approaching 1 in 100 across the population, the risk of harm to our artists and interruption to our business is very high.

“The rest of Bristol Old Vic’s programme for Autumn/Winter remains on sale. The theatre’s promise to keep our audiences safe remains strong with the additional offer of two guaranteed socially distanced performances until Christmas remaining in place.  And our commitment to deliver a stunning production of Giles’ play to live audiences in Bristol and all over the world is stronger than ever.”

Celebrating the power of individual action to drive huge societal change, The Meaning of Zong tells the true story of Olaudah Equiano as he joins forces with anti-slavery campaigner Granville Sharp to publicly condemn the massacre aboard the slave ship Zong, setting in motion events which would go on to galvanise the abolition movement in the UK.

The play was already in development at Bristol Old Vic when the pandemic hit, and the social upheaval of BLM movement, George Floyd’s murder and the toppling of the Colston Statue heightened the play’s urgency - leading to the stage production’s transformation into an audio play for BBC Radio3 in March 2021.

For more information, please click here.