Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the best-selling novel of the nineteenth century. Written in America, pirated in Britain, translated into 20 languages, including Welsh and Arabic, it was also phenomenally popular on the stage for over fifty years.
During these decades it provided solid employment for black actors and other black entertainers. We all think we know the story – but what do we know about the many stage adaptations, ranging from overtly political to emotionally melodramatic, that audiences all over Britain saw? Come and find out the unexpected stories (there’s more than one) behind the preconceptions.
Dr Kathleen Chater worked for the BBC until 1994.
One of her interests was family history so when she left she became self-employed as an author on aspects of history and also as a trainer in research skills for the media and family historians.