Samuel Takes a Break

Every one of us will be here for a different particular reason. I am here because I am passionate about history.

It is 2019, the Year of Return, marking four hundred years since the first enslaved Africans arrived in America. We are at a slave castle in Ghana. Samuel is our tour guide. Its his job to give tourists a really, really authentic experience of the castles dark history, and to do it all with a smile. Thank you, Samuel!

The tourists are Samuels guests, and theyre on a journey of self-discovery. But theyre here, standing on soil, blood and bones, asking for a selfie. They want to buy trinkets from the gift shop. Samuel would never want to hurt the tourists. And they would never want to hurt him.

Rhianna Ilubes Samuel Takes a Break… in Male Dungeon No. 5 After a Long but Generally Successful Day of Tours is a genre-blending play about colonialism, identity and the attempt to preserve the past. It was shortlisted for the Womens Prize for Playwriting and the Verity Bargate Award, and was a finalist for the 2024 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. It premiered at The Yard Theatre, London, in 2024, directed by Anthony Simpson-Pike.