A review by imogenrobinson__
The Lamplighter by Jackie Kay

4.0

Taught me so much about what slaves went through. Was horrifying to learn about how, two days before a slave ship docked, you could smell the vomit, faeces and corpses, and about how sharks followed the ships because so many slaves were jettisoned overboard, both dead and alive when the 'masters' wanted to claim insurance on them. I was disgusted by how, when working the sugar cane fields, a slave licked a sugar cane and was whipped and gagged with horse manure in their mouth for five to six hours, and how the women slaves were taken whenever the masters so pleased. Absolutely awful, I cannot believe humans allowed this to happen for so long. I hope to find a performance of it online somewhere, because the voices Kay create in this poetry play were so powerful and plaintive.