Tayo Aluko, award-winning British performer will bring his world-wide hit Call Mr Robeson at the Walking Fish Theatre, 2509 Frankford Avenue, Phila, PA 19125 for one night only during his East Coast tour. The play with music will be performed on Thursday, June 26, 2008 at 8:00pm. Tickets: $12/$15. Buy at the door or online: www.walkingfishtheatre.com

Not one, but two awards were picked up by Tayo Aluko for his play, Call Mr Robeson, about the great African American singer, actor and civil rights activist, Paul Robeson, during the Brighton, England Festival Fringe in May 2008. Tayo Aluko was given the award of Best Male Performer!

The play touches on Paul Robeson's music, his politics (he was a forerunner of famous figures like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X), his struggles with the American Establishment, and elements of his personal life, between the 1920s and 1960s. It includes many of the great man's speeches and famous songs, including a dramatic rendition of Ol' Man River.

Paul Robeson was a great and famous actor, singer and civil rights campaigner. When over the years he gets progressively too radical and outspoken for the establishment's liking, he is branded a traitor to his country, harassed, and denied opportunities to perform or travel.

Just as physical, emotional and mental stress threaten to push him over the fine line between genius and madness, he is summoned to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee. His wife, two lovers and a mysterious African spirit woman are on hand to prepare him for the most difficult and important performance of his career.

The play features some of his famous songs and speeches, and highlights how his radical activism caused him to be disowned and disremembered, even by the leaders and descendants of the civil rights movement.

Tayo hopes that the Awards will help in his quest to bring Robeson's inspirational story to a wider audience, at a time when the world seems to be short of real heroes.

The play will next be performed on the East Coast of America in late June. Further details will available shortly.

International Contact: Tayo Aluko
Tayo Aluko and Friends
Tel: 0151 707 8187
info@tayoalukoandfriends.com
www.tayoalukoandfriends.com

Other websites:
www.theargus.co.uk/whatson/brightonfestivalandfringe/-theargusangelawards/
www.brightonfestivalfringe.org.uk/news/