Precious Cargo

As young children they were evacuated from a war zone. Fifty years on, Barton and Andy are still trying to find out who they are…

Developed on the Isle of Lewis, Precious Cargo is a powerful and timely new theatre show about the life-long impact of the Vietnam war, by Australian writer-performer Barton Williams and Hebridean composer Andy Yearley. Drawing on their own life experiences as well as interviews with other Operation Babylift adoptees – who grew up across the world after being airlifted out of Vietnam in 1975 as babies – Precious Cargo is a story about the chaos of conflict, childhood trauma, racism, and a generation running out of time to find lost families.

The performance at An Lanntair will include a post-show Q&A with the creative team. It will also feature British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation by Sabine Zielinska.

Precious Cargo is produced by sruth-mara, the Uig-based arts company behind Move-Gluasad, Soil & Soul and Oir Nan Speur | The Edge of the Sky, and directed by Laura Cameron-Lewis. It is being staged for the first time at An Lanntair before a planned three-week run at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe.

sruth-mara is currently running a crowd-funding campaign to support the costs of taking Precious Cargo to the Edinburgh Fringe. If you wish to, you can donate here.

Performed by Barton Williams Music by Andy Yearley Directed by Laura Cameron-Lewis Produced by Andrew Eaton-Lewis Visual & sound design by Robbie Thomson

The show will include BSL interpretation by Sabine Zielinska

A sruth-mara production in association with An Lanntair, supported by Creative Scotland and Mark Barbeliuk.