Production is very simple with the scripts read by the actors.
It needs only a few hours rehearsal. The life of John Newton is more colourful than any soap opera. He was orphaned, pressed into the Navy, flogged for desertion, joined the slave trade, was himself enslaved and saved because he drew geometrical theorems in the sand, was converted in a storm, eventually became a priest, friend of the poet William Cowper and hymn-writer. Finally he campaigned against the slave trade. The play, throws new light on the hymns, and compares the attitudes of the times of Newton with our own - particularly towards the slave trade.