Abolition brings to the music theatre stage the journey of its hero, William Wilberforce, who forged his destiny against impossible odds – a destiny to rid his world of human slavery. Set in the late 1700’s, Abolition interweaves 3 arresting storylines with an array of characters illuminating the drama.

The most confronting narrative is the plight of the enslaved Africans whose lives are portrayed from brutal capture in Africa, to misery on the slave ships, to their hell-hole lives on the sugar plantations in the Caribbean. Their misery is mirrored by the grief of loved ones left behind in Africa – grief with palpable turbulence which then becomes etched, numbly, into the soul.

Then there is the compelling narrative of the hero, William Wilberforce, and his personal and political journey to abolish, in the British parliament, this most heinous of social injustices – the legal and treacherous trans-Atlantic slave trade. Working closely with the abolitionists, a group of Quakers and members of what was known as the Clapham Community, and against insurmountable odds, he committed tenaciously to the cause over a 20-year period, and reshaped the political, social and economic environment of Britain.

Weaving its own agenda as the story evolves is the narrative of the pro-slavery lobby seen mostly through the eyes of the parliamentarians, many of whom and for many generations had vested business interests in the slave trade. Spurred on by the acerbic Colonel Banastre Tarleton, a war hero turned MP, the parliamentary debate was often vitriolic and severely taxed the mental resolve and physical resilience of Wilberforce.

The psychological journeys of a number of characters provide unique lenses into the storyline: William Pitt, the young British Prime Minister, caught between loyalty to the monarchy and commitment to the abolitionist cause; Barbara Spooner, the stalwart love- interest and future wife of William Wilberforce; Kosee, the African mother living with endless stains and depths of grief; Olaudah Equiano, the freed slave and abolitionist who tells his personal journey in all its horror; Reverend John Newton, the ex-slave-trader, burdened with guilt, who finally succumbs to God’s forgiveness; and Sir Charles Fox, a pro-slavery MP who struggles to silence his conscience as the parliamentary debate rages. Thomas and Jean Babington, match-makers at heart, provide necessary light relief for the weighted drama.

Abolition is confronting. It is a portrait of an historical story which depicts the horrors of human cruelty and dehumanization, and in doing so, it assaults the preposterous notion that one human being can own another. Themes of love, grace, hope and forgiveness also wend their way through the story line leading to the final anthem – “Let Freedom’s Song Never Die”.

The themes of Abolition speak to the concerns and discussions of people today and are sure to drive conversations about complex human interactions and about social, political and ethical structures that shape our lives in the modern culture.