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Apphia Campbell on the prospects for revolution: ‘How can you work within a system if it is created to be oppressive?’

Apphia Campbell is back with Through The Mud which builds on her previous hit play WOKE in examining racism and the fight against oppression. She talks to Neil Cooper about what it takes to enact real societal change

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Apphia Campbell on the prospects for revolution: ‘How can you work within a system if it is created to be oppressive?’

A lot has happened since Apphia Campbell first performed the play that has become Through The Mud. Back in 2017, what was then a solo piece called WOKE saw Campbell and co-writer Meredith Yarbrough’s response to the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri (when black teenager Michael Brown was shot dead by a white police officer) become a Fringe hit. Developed and expanded to incorporate a second actress in the form of Tinashe Warikandwa, Through The Mud looks set to do much the same. 

An adaptation of Poems From The Underground by writer and spoken-word artist Altovise Laster, WOKE and now Through The Mud chart the lives of Black Panther Assata Shakur and a 19-year-old student called Ambrosia, who is enrolling at university just as the events in Ferguson are kicking off. Forty-two years apart, the two women rise up. As the killing of Brown and other black men, including George Floyd in 2020, helped foster the rise of Black Lives Matter, Through The Mud’s co-production between Edinburgh-based Stellar Quines and the city’s Lyceum Theatre also seeks to demonstrate the power of working collectively.

Pictures: Stuart Armitt

‘When I started with WOKE, I was producing it all myself,’ says American-born Campbell. ‘I was also new to Scotland. Economically, I couldn’t afford to hire another actress, so it was just me. But the plan was always to have another actress, because the main character is 19 years old, and there’s so much of her story that could be its own show. I wanted to draw a line between Assata and Ambrosia to show the similarities between them, and to be able to play with those relationships and tell their stories in a bigger way. Obviously, there are limitations with that if there is only one person on stage, but I wanted to show that it’s the same struggle.’

Bringing in Warikandwa has paid mighty dividends. ‘It’s just been brilliant to see the life that Tinashe brings to it,’ says Campbell. ‘I had my own way of doing it, but she has a different kind of innocence that I think gives a bit more colour to the character. That opened things up for me creatively and gave me more impetus as a writer to play with things. I was able to put those stories into more perspective and show the similarities.’

Presented at the Fringe as part of the Made In Scotland showcase following a run at the Lyceum, Through The Mud is promoted as showing ‘what it takes to be a revolutionary’. Given the current state of the world, how do we take on such a bold call to arms? ‘That’s a good question,’ says Campbell. ‘I don’t think anybody sets out to be a revolutionary, although I suppose Assata did, calling for the system to be overhauled. I feel like people are still calling for that. But I guess it’s hard, because how can you work within a system if it is created to be oppressive. So how do you become a revolutionary except if you try? It’s a long road.’

Through The Mud, Summerhall, 1–25 August, 5.55pm.

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