ROCKETS AND BLUE LIGHTS (2020)

Rockets and Blue Lights explores the legacy of slavery through parallel stories of Black Londoners in the 1840s and 2000s. It confronts the historical erasure of slavery in Britain, the fetishisation of Black pain and celebrates Black resilience. In the scene shown above, the characters from 1840s and the 2000s share the stage space as the historic group enjoys the Ball of the Blacks and the modern group celebrate the launch of a film about the Zong massacre (see also Giles Terera's The Meaning of Zong mentioned on Day 11, Plays About Black History).

The play, which won the Alfred Fagon Award, premiered at the Royal Exchange, Manchester in March 2020 and the Covid lockdown forced its closure before press night. It was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and restaged at the National Theatre in 2021. The 2021 show was recorded and is available free for schools to watch via the National Theatre Collection or, for individuals, via National Theatre at Home

About the writer

Award winning playwright Winsome Pinnock was born in Islington in 1961 to Jamaican parents. As a Black woman born in Britain to first generation migrants from Jamaica descended from enslaved people, issues of who, how and where people belong suffuses Pinnock’s work. Her plays explore the range of the Black Caribbean British experience from the Victorian era through to the present day, moving between the historical and the contemporary periods.

She has written many plays for stage and radio. These include a number of works for children and young people including The Wind of Change, A Rock in Water about Trinidadian activist Claudia Jones who founded the Notting Hill Carnival, Can You Keep a Secret? for the National Theatre Connections Festival and Pig Heart Boy, an adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s nove for the Unicorn Theatre. Leave Taking her most revived play, is a set text for GCSE drama. Her new play, The Authenticator will open at the National Theatre in March 2026.

Resources

The National Theatre Learning Guide has really useful sections on design and themes of the play

Listen to composer Femi Tomowo talk about the songs used in the play and hear the cast rehearsing them.

Listen to this interview with Winsome Pinnock recorded for Theatrevoice

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