Caroline Clegg might well say “at my age I now realise that I can’t change the world” but from the outside it looks as though she’s having a pretty good go. Caroline, the award-winning director and founder of Manchester’s Feelgood Theatre , is bringing Slave: A Question of Freedom back to The Lowry this week. First staged 14 years ago the play is based on the book written by Mende Nazar about her experiences of surviving rape and slavery in her native Sudan, before becoming an asylum seeker in the UK.
For a small production, it had a major impact first time round being performed at the House of Lords and winning numerous awards including the first Human Trafficking Foundation Media Award. It is also widely credited with influencing the Modern Slavery Act which came into force in 2015. Caroline Clegg “You’ve got to do your bit,” said Bury-born Caroline, who has an international reputation for work in both the theatre and in opera.
“There is a Buddhist teaching that you can drop a pebble into a pond and watch the ripples it creates. I have to keep dropping those pebbles and hope that the ripples will impact a few people here and a few people there.” In revisiting Slave: A Question of Freedom, Caroline has been granted a rare opportunity to update a work.
“Things have changed from 14 years ago,” she said. “We now have the Modern Slavery Bill; Mende is now older and moved on with her life. “But the situation with asylum seekers and trafficking is still.