Performer Name: Tayo Aluko & Friends

Show Name: Call Mr. Robeson

Show Description

“They say I’m meddling in the foreign affairs of the United States Government. Now, that’s too bad, ‘cause I’m going to have to continue to meddle...” Paul Robeson is a world-famous actor, singer and civil rights campaigner. When over the years he gets progressively too radical and outspoken for the establishment's liking, he is branded a traitor to his country, harassed, and denied opportunities to perform or travel. Just as physical, emotional and mental stress threaten to push him over the fine line between genius and madness, he is summoned to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee, to give the most difficult and important performance of his career. This roller-coaster journey through Robeson’s remarkable and eventful life highlights how his pioneering and heroic (but largely forgotten) political activism led many to describe him as the forerunner of the civil rights movement. It features much fiery oratory and some of his famous songs, including a dramatic rendition of Ol’ Man River. Tayo Aluko revives one of the 20th Century’s most impressive but overlooked figures in this powerful, compelling tour-de-force performance, which was seen at New York’s Carnegie Hall in February 2012, and in London’s West End in October 2013. It highlights the mutual love he shared with the people and land of Wales.

No lighting supplied. Show can use stage lighting if it exists in venue. Otherwise, can perform under general lighting.
The show has a soundtrack playable from the company's laptop. A volunteer will be required to trigger sound cues by following the script. This will be rehearsed beforehand, probably for about 30 mins. It's quite straightforward.
A4 or A5 flyers available for overprinting. Digital material can be supplied.
Tayo Aluko. Writer, Performer, Producer. Tayo was born in Nigeria, and now lives in Liverpool. As a baritone, he has sung as soloist in British concert halls accompanied by orchestra, and has also sung in Germany, Ireland and Nigeria. He has performed lead roles in such operas and musicals as Nabucco, Kiss Me Kate and Anything Goes. CALL MR ROBESON won the Argus Angel Award for Artistic Excellence and Best Male Performer Award at the 2008 Brighton Festival Fringe, Best Actor, Best Original Work and Impresario Awards at the London Fringe in Ontario in 2012, and Best Solo Show at the Stratford-upon-Avon Fringe in June 2013. He has performed the play around the UK, the United States of America, Canada and Nigeria, and at New York’s Carnegie Hall in February 2012 on the occasion of his 50th birthday. His second play, JUST AN ORDINARY LAWYER, has been touring since 2017. It looks at the history of British and other European imperialism, and anti-colonialist struggles in Africa and beyond, through the eyes of Britain's first Black judge. It involves singing and a love for spectator sports. His third play, COLERIDGE-TAYLOR OF FREETOWN premiered in May 2024. The beautiful music of the famous Black British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor forms the background to an exploration of the history of European exploitation of Africa that led, in this case to the civil war in Sierra Leone, the birth place of the composer's father, in the 1990s.