You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know!’
William Wilberforce
London based Community Theatre Company Rah Rah, has teamed up with Migrant Help, The Salvation Army, Hope For Justice and Action of Churches Together in Scotland, to mark Anti-Slavery day on 18th October with its production of My Mind Is Free by Sam Hall. Through funding from the Scottish Government, the production is to tour Scotland in October highlighting the scale of the human trafficking problem in Scotland today. The production will return to Scotland at the start of 2019 for a performance of the play at the Scottish Parliament.
Each performance will be accompanied by a speaker and a Q&A which will inform audiences about how they as a community can help fight this horrific crime and spot the signs of trafficking. Speakers include the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Humza Yousaf MSP and Peter Hope-Jones, head of the Scottish Government’s human trafficking team.
Through the interlinked stories of four people trafficked to and within the UK, My Mind Is Free tells their tales of abuse, exploitation and enslavement. The powerful interpretation of the degradations of human trafficking uses a mixture of physical theatre and multi–role playing to tell stories based on real life cases.
My Mind Is Free first toured in 2015, receiving 4 and 5 star reviews and was nominated for Best stage play in the Human Trafficking Foundation’s Anti-Slavery Media awards 2016 that was hosted by the Home Secretary at the House of Commons. It played the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2017 receiving 4 and 5 star reviews and was nominated for the Amnesty Edinburgh Festival: Freedom of Expression Award 2017.
Human trafficking is the world’s fastest growing global crime. The 2015 Global Slavery Index estimates that there are 35.8 million people enslaved in the world. There are 1.1 million new trafficked victims a year, 3,000 new victims a day, or a shocking 125 people per hour forced into slavery. The Metropolitan Police estimate that in the UK alone over 20,000 people are trafficked every year.
For a full list of tour dates please go to the website www.mymindisfree.com.