Q&A with Sebastian Armesto, co-writer and director of Land of the Free

We spoke to the writer and director of Land of the Free and simple8 co-founder Sebastian Armesto about the upcoming show at Southwark Playhouse Borough, the inspiration behind it and why the show's subject matters remain so relevant today. Playing in the lead up to the most contentious American presidential election since the time of the Civil War, Land of The Free tells the full story for the first time in British theatre of the life of the actor John Wilkes Booth and how he came to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

What inspired you to explore the full story of John Wilkes Booth in Land of the Free? 

We'd contemplated a show about Booth for sometime, mainly because he carried out the killing in a theatre and Booth was an actor. But we shirked ever writing it because we knew the large amount of time and research a show about him would require. Then the Capitol was stormed and COVID lockdowns happened, and as people were being asked to sacrifice a certain amount of personal liberty for the greater good a play about Booth, a man who used the word liberty to justify his actions, now seemed like a particularly pertinent idea. So we did the research and writing while locked down, and since then Trump and his MAGA rhetoric continues to blossom, fear of tyranny and oppression rears among us, and a lot else - referenda, conflict, insurgency - is happening in the name of liberty.

The play explores issues like racial justice and freedom that are still extremely relevant today. How did you research and develop these to connect the past to the present? 

The pithy answer is we read a lot. But the links between the past and present are inexorable. America is still culturally, economically, racially, religiously and politically divided, just as when Lincoln first assumed office. It's a young nation that was constructed in a flash rather than emerging, like most others, over time, so we mustn't judge it, but the play does examine both the brilliance of America's aspirations and their fragility.

There appears to be many different settings throughout the show, from playhouses to battlefields. How do you create these on stage?

With a curtain, some chairs and some bits of old wood. As we've mentioned we first thought the subject might suit theatre because it happened in a theatre, so the show does play on an audience's imaginative forces.

How have you found the rehearsal process?

Vastly improved by having an excellent and multi-talented company, but there's never enough time.

What would you like audiences to take away from the show?

We're not historians or political experts and I hope we shun telling the audience what to think. Rather we've tried to present what we learned in as inventive, diverting and curious a way as possible so that folk can go home, ruminate, discover for themselves and digest as their systems deem fit.

What's next for Simple8?

Land Of The Free runs for 5 weeks. After that, there are a few ideas in the mix....

Land of the Free runs at Southwark Playhouse Borough until the 9 November, more information and how to book tickets here: https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/land-of-the-free/