A Roots Mbili Theatre Production & Originally Co-Produced With Sheffield Theatres
Written and Performed by JOHN RWOTHOMACK | Directed By MOJISOLA KAREEM
PRESS REVIEWS
‘CAPTIVATING AND POWERFUL’
— The Guardian
★★★★★
— Three Weeks
★★★★★
— Fringe Biscuit
★★★★★
Fairy Powered Productions
★★★★★
— EdFringe Review
★★★★
— The West End Best friend
★★★★
What’s On Stage
★★★★
— The Reviews Hub
★★★★
— British Theatre Guide
★★★★★
Theatre-News
17 - 20 Sept 2025 — TANYA MOISEIWITSCH PLAYHOUSE, Sheffield, UK
8 - 10 Oct 2025 — THE LOWRY, Manchester, UK14 - 19 Oct 2025 — DADAOCHENG INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL, Tainan, Taiwan21 Oct 2025 — National Dong Hwa University (NDHU)
Hualien, Taiwan24 - 26 Oct 2025 — PERFORMING ARTS THEATER, TAINAN ART MUSEUM, Tainan, Taiwan11 - 15 Nov 2025 — THE LESSOR, THE BAXTER THEATRE CENTRE, Cape Town, South Africa18 - 22 Nov 2025 — THE LESEDI THEATRE, JOBURG THEATRE, Johannesburg, South AfricaRescheduled to 2026 — WARWICK THEATRE, Kansas City, USATBA — London, UKFar Gone (2019 - 2026)
Status: World Tour Sept 2025 - Mar 2026
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Writer And Actor John Rwothomack
Director Mojisola Elufowoju
Producer Sam Holland
Dramaturg Paul Sirett
Designer Kevin Jenkins
Musical Director Lee Affen
Lighting Designer Will Monks
Movement Director Akeim Toussaint Buck
Production Manager Tom Robbins
Movement Director Lilac Yosiphon
Digital Director Smart Banda
Stage Manager Hannah Birtwistle-Crossland
Stage and Tour Manager Sylvia Darkwa-Ohemeng
Stage and Tour Manager Tori Klays
Assistant Producer Tchiyiwe Chihana
Videographer Gomolemo Nyakale
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Arts Council England
Sheffield Theatres
Theatre Deli
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Jo Hookway
Neo Balesamang | Joe Bunce | Puto Gerald | Mark Hutchinson | Joanna Jowett | Lee Moore | Kenneth Omole | Mark Oosterveen | Jack Poole | Isabel Potter | Rowan Read | Nicky Richardson
“If I invited you to come with me on a journey, a story, will you come with me?”
Northern Uganda. When Okumu’s village is attacked by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), he and his brother’s lives are changed forever.
Critically acclaimed, one-actor powerhouse Far Gone has moved audiences around the world.
Inspired by John Rwothomack’s own real-life experience of nearly being kidnapped by the Lord’s Resistance Army aged eight, the show is a profoundly immersive and haunting drama told through the eyes of a child soldier.
It shines a light on the abductions of tens of thousands of children carried out by the brutal rebel force, the LRA, across Central and East Africa.
When Okumu’s village in northern Uganda is attacked by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), he and his brother’s lives are changed forever. Told through humour, physical theatre and poetry, the show also contains a horrifying twist.
Far Gone was first performed in 2019 and went on a national tour in 2022, co-produced with Sheffield Theatres.
In 2025, the show went international, in Roots Mbili Theatre’s first world tour.
The successful tour called at Sheffield, Manchester, Taiwan, South Africa, London and concluded in Berlin in March 2026.
Described as ‘captivating and powerful’, the play has received multiple five-star reviews and standing ovations.
With special thanks to: Jo Hookway, Neo Balesamang, Joe Bunce, Puto Gerald, Mark Hutchinson, Joanna Jowett, Lee Moore, Kenneth Omole, Mark Oosterveen, Jack Poole, Isabel Potter, Rowan Read, Nicky Richardson, and also supported by Theatre Deli.
“John's performance is brilliant, unforgettable, legendary, and he is so immersed in his storytelling that he carries us with him into this brutal, controlling world where we live the horror through him.”
Velda Harris, British Theatre Guide 
TRAILER
Trailer by Goms Nyakale
BEHIND THE STORY
As a little boy, aged eight, I was nearly kidnapped from my home in Northern Uganda by the rebel group, The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) led by the notorious Joseph Kony. Ten years later while studying in my first year of drama school, I was stunned to see a video by Invisible Children, an American NGO calling for the capture of Joseph Kony. The video entitled ‘Kony 2012’ would become a viral phenomenon, except that it came far, far, too late. In order to reclaim the narrative, I conceived an idea and seven years later, Far Gone was written and came to life.
This play is not about me, the kid who was lucky enough to escape. This play is for the hundreds of thousands who did not. For the parents whose children were either lost forever or forever changed. For the young girls who were forced to marry men old enough to be their fathers. For the brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces, nephews, sons and daughters who lost the innocence of childhood, simply for being born at an unfortunate time in an unfortunate place. For the future generations who will continue to suffer the trauma the LRA has imprinted on them, for many years to come.
OUR PARTNERS
The play is developed in partnership with Theatre Deli and Sheffield Theatres Making Room. It has been collaboratively developed mainly with a Sheffield-based creative team. We use a research-based creative process that fuses movement and traditional African oral storytelling with the sounds and harmonies of Ugandan music and spiritual songs.
