The play reminded me of Mr Maxwell, the teacher with the cheeky opinions who pushed the boundaries of history. He asked the big questions. We got inside the poems of Maya Angelou and the conditions of the slave ships and asked why it happened in the first place. Mr Maxwell challenged us to see that history, the history in the class text, was one version amongst many. History was remembered how it was written.

Plays like Rise Up give me hope because they open up dialogue for people to speak, listen, and reflect. Not necessarily in the theatre but retelling the aspects of the play they connected with to other things and ask those big questions such as ‘why isn’t our history curriculum reflective of our diverse social background as a country?’ Hoping that someone better positioned than I hears this message and challenges the curriculum to change. At the heart of all theatre is the hope of social change.

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