This charismatic but chaotic play unearths a fabulous, forgotten figure from 19th century letters and race history: August Boyle Chamberlayne Merriman-Labor, a Sierra Leonean barrister, businessman and travelling lecturer who came to Edwardian London and wrote a satirical ethnography cum travelogue entitled Briton Through Negro Spectacles.
It was a delicious spoof of studies of Africa by so-called western experts. This picaresque play combines Merriman-Labor’s life and journey into the “heart of whiteness” with that of a modern-day narrator grieving his dead boyfriend, Alfred, and putting on this play to honour him.
