Cast and dates announced for Ghosts - a new AR app experience in Glasgow’s Merchant City exploring slavery and empire

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26 Feb 2021

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The app will now be available to download 12 to 25 April 2021 (subject to COVID regulations in Scotland).

Taking place in and around Glasgow's Merchant City, audiences are invited to download the bespoke app, to plug in their headphones, and immerse themselves in this AR experience as they walk, exploring the myth of the collective amnesia of slavery and racialised wealth, of empire and identity, and of being lost and found in space and time.

Written and directed by Adura Onashile Ghosts is performed by cast members Reuben Joseph, Lisa Livingstone, Simon Donaldson and Fiona MacNeil. They will lead the audience on a powerful journey of over 500 years of resistance through the streets of the Merchant City and down to the River Clyde.

Adura Onashile has worked with researcher Adebusola Ramsay, composer Niroshini Thambar, historian Dr Peggy Brunache and developers at immersive design outfit Bright Side Studios to create Ghosts

Using extraordinary visuals and sound design, the story will take audiences on a physical and emotional journey, walking through the heart of modern Glasgow whilst exploring the legacies of the city’s past. A lament to lives lost and an impassioned call to action in the present day.

Lead Artist Adura Onashile:

“The young man that audiences will follow is our attempt to make real, over 500 years of history, rebellion, resistance and protest. When enslaved Africans liberated themselves from their masters, they started a process that continues today.

We don't know what happened to him, and history hasn't afforded him a name or presence, but this is our attempt at saying that he existed, and though we can’t be sure whether he ever found the refuge he was seeking, this our attempt to put his ghost to rest."

Ghosts is also creatively supported by Alberta Whittle as Research Artist Consultant, Zoë Charlery as Creative Researcher and Claricia Parinussa as Associate Producer.