Giles Terera’s The Meaning of Zong is set to be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Sunday 21 March, following by its release on BBC Sounds.

An open conversation with the cast and creative team on Zoom will succeed the broadcast on 31 March at 8pm, where you will be able to discuss what the play means in society today. 

Olivier Award-winner Giles Terera’s debut play tells the story of a discovery of a massacre of 132 African slaves aboard the ship Zong in 1781 and the impact it had on pioneering Abolitionist Olaudah Equiano and the extraordinary life choices he made. 

The play was developed in workshops at the National Theatre Studio and had a rehearsed reading at Bristol Old Vic in 2018. It is a collaboration between Bristol Old Vic and Jonx Productions, who have turned this into an audio production. 

Terera said: “I wanted to tell this story because it explains how we all arrived at the Britain we are living in today. It explains why people feel the need to pull statues down. We can better understand where we are by acknowledging how we got here. And we can understand where we're going by understanding where we've been…It is a difficult subject but the best stories, though they can be the hardest to face are often the most rewarding.” 

Full details of the play and conversation can be found here.