Possession
15 June to 15 July 2023

Arcola Theatre

Possession, Arcola Theatre

Possession is a tale of four mothers’ lives interweaving across continents and time…

Kasambayi, who recently arrived in the UK from the Democratic Republic of Congo, starts her contractions on the number 38 bus at Clapton Pond and gives the final push at Victoria. She names her daughter Hope — hopes for their new life, hopes for their future.

Once Hope is fully grown, her path crosses with Alice, a foreign correspondent with a particular interest in Cobalt – the latest blood mineral being mined in the DRC. But will their budding friendship threaten the safety that Kasambayi has so carefully built for them in London?

Meanwhile, Alice Seeley-Harris, a Victorian Missionary’s wife in King Leopold’s Congo has a horrible sense that history is repeating itself.

Possession is a tale about desire. About owning and being owned. About colonising and being colonised. And ultimately about the power of the spirit to escape oppression.

NEED TO KNOW: Possession is playing at the Arcola Theatre from 15 June to 15 July 2023