"If I invited you to come with me on a journey, a story, will you come with me?"
Northern Uganda. When Okumu’s village is attacked by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), he and his brother’s lives are changed forever.
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| Photo by Leon Ngeleka |
Far Gone is a profoundly moving story of a young boy’s journey from childhood innocence to child soldier. Originally co-produced with Sheffield Theatres. Told with humour, poetry and startling physical theatre, Okumu’s experience strikes straight at the heart through a powerful one-man performance written by John Rwothomack and directed by Mojisola Kareem. Inspired by Rwothomack’s own near experience of abduction by the LRA, Far Gone explores how conflict reshapes identity, family and belonging and what it takes to hold onto humanity in the face of violence.
Following its critically acclaimed national tour, Far Gone lands at Brixton House for its London Debut as part of its world tour, with performances across the USA, Taiwan and South Africa.
This is storytelling that transcends borders — raw, poetic, and deeply human.
Ahead of the London debut, Giada caught up with writer and performer John Rwothomack to learn more about the piece.
Far Gone traces a young boy’s journey from childhood innocence to the brink of becoming a child soldier in Northern Uganda. The work is inspired by your real-life experience of nearly being abducted by the LRA at the age of eight. Rather than asking why you tell this story, I’m interested in how: how did Far Gone come into being as a piece of theatre?
In 2018, Sheffield Theatres ran its first Making Room takeover, and there was a 20-minute scratch night to present something. I’d been toying with the idea of Far Gone and had pitched it to many different writers, but didn’t feel they were right for it.
In 2018, Sheffield Theatres ran its first Making Room takeover, and there was a 20-minute scratch night to present something. I’d been toying with the idea of Far Gone and had pitched it to many different writers, but didn’t feel they were right for it.
I was working with Paul Sirett, directing his play Bad Blood Blues on the ethics of HIV trials in Africa, and it was he who told me I was the only person who could write this play. That’s what I needed to hear.
I started to write it more as an actor than as a writer. I did a lot of research and development on the characters. I knew the plot would focus on a spirit coming back to guide someone, but at first, that was between two friends, then it developed into brothers. Then, I had to think about the beginning of the play, and I decided to start it with a game we played as kids in Uganda.
Originally, it was a two-actor show. But the money offered for the scratch night was exactly my month’s rent - so it had to be a one-actor show! After the scratch night, we applied to Arts Council England for funding, and were able to perform the show for the first time in 2019 at Theatre Deli, followed by Sheffield Theatres and in Uganda.
You tell a story shaped by extreme violence through humour, poetry, and physical theatre. How do you balance these elements dramaturgically? Is the physical language or the poetry your starting point, or do these forms emerge precisely when words alone are no longer sufficient?
This play is very much 50:50 in terms of the language and what the physical body is doing. What the child soldiers in the Lord’s Resistance Army experienced was not verbal; it was physical and psychological. So it was important for me to intentionally make Far Gone include physical theatre. I use the approach that is needed at each point to tell the story. There are some moments of their experience which can only be told physically, and others, such as the passing of time, which need language to explain to the audience. And the physicalities of each character are also deeply linked to their individual psyches, too.
This play is very much 50:50 in terms of the language and what the physical body is doing. What the child soldiers in the Lord’s Resistance Army experienced was not verbal; it was physical and psychological. So it was important for me to intentionally make Far Gone include physical theatre. I use the approach that is needed at each point to tell the story. There are some moments of their experience which can only be told physically, and others, such as the passing of time, which need language to explain to the audience. And the physicalities of each character are also deeply linked to their individual psyches, too.
Far Gone is directed by Mojisola Kareem, while you are both the writer and performer. How did this collaboration come about? What does it mean to place your own story in someone else’s hands?
Mojisola saw the first 20 minutes of the show on that scratch night. At the time, she was the only other African director in Sheffield, so it made sense for us to collaborate.
Mojisola saw the first 20 minutes of the show on that scratch night. At the time, she was the only other African director in Sheffield, so it made sense for us to collaborate.
She was interested in making it happen, which has been such a blessing. A lot of the spiritual elements of the play were brought in by Mojisola, as well as defining who these people are and moving them from scene to scene. That brought a richness to the play I am very grateful for. I am always careful to say this is not a one-person show - it’s got a creative team behind it, from the lighting designer Will Monks to the set designer Kevin Jenkins, sound designer Lee Affen, movement director Lilac Yosiphon, and the producer Sam Holland. We’ve had about 25 people work on the show so far, and I’d like to say thank you to all of them here for carrying it forward. Note: The full creative team can be viewed here
The show has toured internationally, across multiple continents. How does the socio-political context of each country shape the way the work is received? Has the shifting global political landscape changed how audiences respond to the story, or how you perform it?
There are three ways the audience responds to the story - emotionally, intellectually and spiritually. I would say emotionally, it’s been a very consistent response across all seven cities in three continents. People are affected by it, and they want to talk about it afterwards; that’s why we have the Q&As on stage, so they can stay, breathe, and be with us. Intellectually, we are talking about the robbery of childhood innocence and colonialism. In Taiwan, questions about colonialism were particularly present, as they also were in Uganda, both for understandable reasons. Spirituality was also very present in how people responded in South Africa.
There are three ways the audience responds to the story - emotionally, intellectually and spiritually. I would say emotionally, it’s been a very consistent response across all seven cities in three continents. People are affected by it, and they want to talk about it afterwards; that’s why we have the Q&As on stage, so they can stay, breathe, and be with us. Intellectually, we are talking about the robbery of childhood innocence and colonialism. In Taiwan, questions about colonialism were particularly present, as they also were in Uganda, both for understandable reasons. Spirituality was also very present in how people responded in South Africa.
The play doesn’t change because of the changing political landscape. What does affect it is how audiences are behaving on the day, how they are feeling and responding to the opening. That changes how I then perform to that audience. Interestingly, Cape Town was the only place where the commandment character has been booed. And in 2019, we had ex-LRA soldiers and Ugandan soldiers come to see the play in Uganda. The emotional response there was very intense. It was incredibly special.
Neuroscience tells us that trauma can rewire neural pathways. In that context, do you experience the act of writing and performing Far Gone as a form of counter-movement, a re-wiring through storytelling, memory, and embodiment?
My reason for telling this story was not to do with personal healing or as a form of therapy. Yes, I was nearly one of those kids when I was eight. And when I was 18 at drama school, I saw an advert for a film called Kony 2021, about Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony. I thought the campaign wasn’t right, it was doing something that wasn’t honest, and that’s when I made a promise to myself to tell this story of what really happened.
My reason for telling this story was not to do with personal healing or as a form of therapy. Yes, I was nearly one of those kids when I was eight. And when I was 18 at drama school, I saw an advert for a film called Kony 2021, about Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony. I thought the campaign wasn’t right, it was doing something that wasn’t honest, and that’s when I made a promise to myself to tell this story of what really happened.
It’s not about me, it’s about the kids who were not fortunate enough to escape the LRA.
Roots Mbili Theatre platforms stories from Africa and the African diaspora, creating space for narratives that are often unheard on mainstream stages. What challenges come with making this work within the context of the London theatre scene? And beyond attending performances, how can audiences actively advocate for this kind of work?
We are only four years old, and I am very proud of everything we’ve done in that time. We’ve taken Far Gone on this world tour, we took our show Lines to New York, and we have two incredible works in progress, which have been received brilliantly. The biggest challenge for us is always funding work. We are so grateful to the Arts Council, but we are funded on a project-by-project basis. We have dreams of working in a way that’s beyond what we do now - such as with other writers - but to do that, we need core funding. It’s incredibly exciting to be in London at Brixton House, after our original plans for the capital were stalled by Covid. We want our work to be seen as widely as possible, and London is a huge part of that, so we are looking forward to working with other collaborators here. The response so far has been incredible.
We are only four years old, and I am very proud of everything we’ve done in that time. We’ve taken Far Gone on this world tour, we took our show Lines to New York, and we have two incredible works in progress, which have been received brilliantly. The biggest challenge for us is always funding work. We are so grateful to the Arts Council, but we are funded on a project-by-project basis. We have dreams of working in a way that’s beyond what we do now - such as with other writers - but to do that, we need core funding. It’s incredibly exciting to be in London at Brixton House, after our original plans for the capital were stalled by Covid. We want our work to be seen as widely as possible, and London is a huge part of that, so we are looking forward to working with other collaborators here. The response so far has been incredible.
Apart from coming to see this kind of work, it’s also important for audiences to let theatres know that it’s okay to take risks on shows that might not be mainstream. These are shows looking at real life and the world, looking directly at rather than away from pain and honesty, and we should all challenge theatres to platform them.
Far Gone runs at Brixton House in London until Saturday 21st February 2026. Tickets are available from https://brixtonhouse.co.uk/shows/far-gone/
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