Kemi-Bo Jacobs' play about abolitionist and radical Frederick Douglass receives Peter Shaffer commission
Live Theatre receives Peter Shaffer commission for Kemi-Bo Jacobs’ play about abolitionist and radical Frederick Douglass.
Our venue has been selected out of a competitive process to commission North East performer and playwright Kemi-Bo Jacobs to write We Need The Storm, exploring the life of social reformer and slave abolitionist Frederick Douglass and his defining years in the North of England.
Kemi-Bo Jacobs is currently Live Theatre’s Associate Artist. She received widespread acclaim for her award-winning play about the life of the black tennis player Althea Gibson, All White Everything But Me. The play won a North East Culture Award and was shortlisted for a Stage Debut Award.
On receiving the commission, Jacobs said:
“As an emerging playwright I am hugely grateful to Live Theatre for giving me this commission, also to the National Theatre for recognising our ambition and awarding us the Peter Shaffer commission. Live Theatre has a long tradition of developing new voices and I'm delighted to be endorsed by the venue. To be given the opportunity to write about Frederick Douglass is a true honour. I can't wait to get work in dramatising this lesser known period in history and bringing to light the contribution that the people of Newcastle made to the abolitionist movement.”
Live Theatre’s Artistic Director Jack McNamara said:
“The North East has an unsung radical past, from producing one of the first feminist writers Mary Astell through to Martin Luther King’s visit to Newcastle in the 1970s. We have been dying to tell Douglass’ story for a long time and Kemi-Bo Jacobs is the ideal person to do so. She’s a singular artist who digs deep into her material and has an uncanny knack for making history feel entirely present. With everything happening around the country at the moment we need to put these activists and rule breakers centre stage more than ever.”
We Need The Storm will open at Live Theatre in early 2026.
Other theatres and their writers to receive the 2025 Peter Shaffer Commission include Jack Lowe for curious directive, Martin Green for Lepus Productions, Maryam Hamidi for Citizens Theatre and May Sumbwanyambe for Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
