"The ensemble is vibrant and muscular, the sum of the whole is raw and vital" four stars – Financial Times

In 1987, Jack Mapanje, then a little-known academic, linguist and poet, was imprisoned without charge at Mikuyu prison in Malawi. Despite an international outcry led by Amnesty International and supported by many writers and artists including Wole Soyinka, Harold Pinter and Ronald Harwood, he remained there for 3 years, 7 months, 16 days and more than 12 hours. He was never told why. This is his story. It is a story bursting with hope and humour, and the extraordinary people who survived President Hastings Kamuzu Banda’s attempts to silence his opponents. Living with the threat of death by a ‘car accident’ or being thrown into the crocodile-infected Shire River, Jack Mapanje and his fellow prisoners of conscience survived the dreadful conditions with a spirit of optimism and humanity, which is both uplifting and extraordinary.

Everything in this play is true.

Malawi in the 1980s was a dangerous place. People disappeared. Even President Banda’s cabinet were not safe. Banda ordered his Young Pioneers to act against anyone who opposed the president. He said:

“Tell the police. But if the police do nothing, I put you above the police. And crocodiles are hungry at night.”

For this production Kate Stafford developed the show for Bilimankhwe Arts working with Nanzikambe Theatre Arts, the leading professional theatre company in Malawi.

And Crocodiles Are Hungry At Night is an adaptation of award-winning poet Jack Mapanje’s prison memoir of the same name. The show opened in Blantyre Malawi to universally rave reviews and went on to tour Malawi. The company of 9 Malawian actors then travelled to the UK for a London run at the Africa Centre and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust's Poetry for Amnesty in summer 2012.