Nia Akilah Robinson’s The Great Privation opens at Theatre503

Theatre503 and Executive Producer Zena Collins present The Great Privation, a new play by American playwright Nia Akah Robinson.

Set in Pennsylvania and shifting between the early 1800s and the present day, The Great Privation: How to flip ten cents into a dollar is a stunning and profound play that explores the impact of grave robbing for medical science, and the historical disruption of Black bodies that never got their rest. Timelines collide and secrets and lives become buried and revealed, as a reckoning comes to call: the roots to our ancestors are not as long as we may think.

Nia Akilah Robinson is a playwright and actor from Harlem. Her work has been developed through residencies, fellowships, commissions, and development with a number of prestigious companies and festivals in the US (full biography in credits). Director Kalungi Ssebandeke is Theatre503’s Carne Associate Director. His credits include Meetings (Orange Tree) as winner of the 2023 JMK Directing Award.

This is the second collaboration between Theatre503 and Zena  following Zena’s collaboration on the original Theatre503 production of J’Ouvert by Yasmin Joseph – a huge hit which was nominated for an Evening Standard Theatre Award and transferred to the West End.

The production runs from May 14 until June 1 2024. Find more information on the official website.