Far Gone

Okumu grows up in a village in Northern Uganda. When the Lord's Resistance Army, the rebel group led by Joseph Kony, attacks the village, he and his brother see their lives permanently altered.

This one-actor play follows a young boy as he moves from the innocence of childhood to life as a child soldier. The story is told through the eyes of the people who love him and the people who turn against him.

The writer, John Rwothomack, drew on his own near-abduction by the LRA. The production was co-produced by Roots Mbili Theatre and Sheffield Theatres, with support from Theatre Deli in Sheffield. It opened at the Crucible Studio in Sheffield in 2022, directed by Mojisola Elufowoju.

Rwothomack has said the play is not about his own escape but about the hundreds of thousands who did not escape. It speaks to parents whose children were lost or changed beyond recognition, to young girls forced into marriages with men old enough to be their fathers, and to brothers, sisters, cousins and children who lost their childhood simply for being born at a bad moment in a hard place. It also looks ahead to future generations who will carry the trauma the LRA inflicted for years to come.