British historian Simon Schama has had enormous popular and critical success with most of the big history books he has written since 1989.

A sense of timing helps. Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution was published in 1989, the bi-centenary of the historic event and coincidentally the year of so much revolutionary change in communist-dominated Eastern Europe.

His latest, Rough Crossings: The Slaves, the British and the American Revolution, came out in time to mark another bi-centenary, the 1807 Act of Parliament abolishing the trafficking of slaves.

The book was made into a movie and has been adapted for the stage by Caribbean writer Caryl Phillips.

Jointly produced by West Yorkshire Playhouse, Birmingham Repertory Company, Liverpool Everyman and London's Lyric Hammersmith, the play, directed by Rupert Goold, opened earlier this week at West Yorkshire Playhouse.

The play explores 15 years of history at the time of the American War of Independence in the late 18th century. Thousands of black slaves from southern plantations joined the British Army in exchange for the promise of freedom and land.

When the British were eventually defeated many of these former slaves were left to fend for themselves in the freezing wastes of Nova Scotia, Canada - a British colony.

The play follows the true story of how these abandoned people were led back across the Atlantic to freedom in newly-created Sierra Leone.

Caryl Phillips, who was raised on the Whinmoor estate, near Seacroft, East Leeds, identified with their plight. "I grew up hugely aware of the fact that I wasn't in the story, that I wasn't in the history books. I felt like little orphan Annie. We were the only black family in the whole place," he said.

A cast of 15 is led by Patrick Robinson. Probably best known for his role as Ash in Casualty, in Rough Crossings he plays Thomas Peters, one of those who managed to reach Sierra Leone where he eventually died of malaria.

Patrick's back catalogue shows a preponderance of plays over films and television, including nine Shakespeare tragedies and comedies. Does this mean that he prefers the more naked reality of live theatre to pre-recorded films?

"As you get older it's a lot harder if you are doing a long run - eight shows a week for six days a week. But theatre is more of a buzz.

"You can get some great stuff on telly but the process of rehearse and record means that you can rehearse for hours for three minutes of film. It can be very bitty and demands concentration in a different way," he said.

This show opened for three weeks in Birmingham before going to London for three weeks. When Patrick spoke he was finishing three weeks at Liverpool's Everyman. Rough Crossings ends its 12-week run at West Yorkshire Playhouse.

What sort of reception has the play received?

"I tend not to read reviews, that's been going on for a long time. I only read them years after I have done the work.

"I have been told the reviews have been good. Simon Schama is a well-respected historian and Caryl Phillips is a well-established writer.

"I think the play could have done better in terms of audience numbers, but that may be to do with marketing. Each theatre did its own publicity," he said.

At the Playhouse the play is being staged in The Courtyard, the smaller of the theatre's two venues. Patrick has played there before.

"I played in Dangerous Corner (by J B Priestley) which transferred to the West End. I liked the Courtyard," he added.

Born of Jamaican parents, Patrick was brought up in South-East London.

"I am British. I have been to Jamaica but I couldn't live there. But I have been told to go back where I came from," he said. Whoever said that didn't mean south of the Thames.

For Patrick, Rough Crossings represents a piece in the historical jigsaw of slavery.

"It's a true story, but there are so many stories that have not been highlighted. It takes an historian of the calibre of Simon Schama to research them and make people aware of them."

  • Rough Crossings is on at West Yorkshire Playhouse until November 24, starting at 7.45pm. The box office number is (0113) 2137700.