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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

One of the awful ironies of this harrowing play about the Sudanese human rights activist Mende Nazer’s experience of modern slavery is that it wouldn’t exist had she not had the courage to try and escape — and had a couple of brave people not helped her. Being an enslaved person in today’s world means being invisible and voiceless. When Nazer broke free in 2000, it was from a home in north-west London: her plight had gone shockingly unnoticed in contemporary Britain.

Since Kevin Fegan’s play (drawn from Nazer’s 2002 autobiography, Slave, co-written with journalist Damien Lewis) was first staged in 2010, the UK has introduced the Modern Slavery Act. Yet there are currently an estimated 49.6mn enslaved people across the world, according to the Global Slavery Index, and an estimated 130,000 in the UK, according to Anti-Slavery International. Those grim statistics hang over Caroline Clegg’s revival for Feelgood theatre company.

In 1994, as a young girl, Nazer was snatched by mujahideen raiders, who torched her village in the remote Nuba mountains in Sudan, killed many of the inhabitants, and kidnapped and raped her. The traumatised 12-year-old was then sold to a wealthy family in Khartoum, where she was beaten, brutalised and bullied into submission. About six years later, she was trafficked to relatives of her “master” in London, where a chance encounter finally offered a way out. Even then she was initially refused asylum by the UK government; it would take a vigorous campaign to save her from deportation back to Sudan.

Fegan’s play offers a straightforward, episodic account of events, staged by a versatile ensemble in Clegg’s production, who deploy rich traditional music and dance to whisk us into Nazer’s early childhood and contrast that easy warmth and freedom with the later horrors of enslavement. It’s not a particularly innovative show in style or structure. But that’s not the point of this drama, which is more about conveying the naked facts of modern slavery and its impact.

Watching the excellent Yolanda Ovide, as Nazer, transform from an open-faced, hopeful little girl into a shrunken, cowed young woman is awful. There’s a wonderful performance too from Ebony Feare as her friend, Kheko. That they represent real people, and that their experiences are common to many, is what really hits you. This is theatre as educator and campaigner, admirably shining a light on this most hideous and shameful of trades.

★★★★☆

To November 9, riversidestudios.co.uk

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

This year is the 60th anniversary of the Moog modular, the first commercial synthesiser. It was invented in the US by the engineer Robert Moog and the composer Herb Deutsch, who wrote the earliest piece of Moog music, a groovy avant-jazz instrumental in which the synthesiser is an otherworldly electronic companion to piano and trumpet. “I was looking for where a new sound could be,” Deutsch has said of the instrument’s creation.

Over the decades his new sound has become an old sound. Analogue synths such as the Moog are no longer redolent of the future but the past. They are prized for their warm, faintly distorted resonance, a product of their appealingly imperfect circuitry.

According to Sean McBride of electronic music duo Xeno & Oaklander, the peak years for analogue synthesisers came between 1978 and 1984, before digital ones took over. His partnership with Liz Wendelbo inhabits that era with unswerving commitment. They formed in New York in 2004 and were leaders of a scene reviving European cold wave, the post-punk electronic music of the late 1970s and early 1980s. That Brooklyn-centred scene has retreated into obscurity, but the pair march on doggedly with their retro-futuristic synth-pop.

Via Negativa (In the Doorway Light) is the eighth Xeno & Oaklander album. Its title alludes to the split states running through their work, in which the negative and positive terminals of electric circuitry are echoed in their female and male voices, as well as their backgrounds: McBride’s in the US and Wendelbo’s in Europe. There is also a temporal split: the notion of an idealised past being reactivated.

The eight songs use a connoisseur’s collection of drum machines and sequencers. They move briskly through grid-like beats. Minimalism is offset by richly hued textures. Rubbery basslines absorb the push and shove of chunky riffs. Quavering notes aspire towards an electronic sublime. Both vocalists occupy narrow ranges. McBride chants in a low monotone, while Wendelbo sings at a breathy pitch, partly in French. The world ushered into being by the Moog is evoked with a pleasurable hint of Kraftwerkian playfulness.

★★★★☆

‘Via Negativa (In the Doorway Light)’ is released by Dais

Stock markets in the UK and across Europe have rallied after Donald Trump won the US presidential election race.

US stocks markets hit record highs this afternoon (6 November) after the historic result, which is being labelled as the “great comeback in political history”.

Markets jumped more than 3% at the news – opening at 42,221.88 before hitting a record 43,514.85.

The US dollar also surged, while the FTSE 100 jumped by 1.5% when markets opened on Wednesday.

It stayed 1.2% higher when the  was declared that Donald Trump had won the election.

In Europe, initial rises have started to subside due to threats of high tariffs from the incoming Trump administration.

Some economists have warned Trump’s tariff plans would come as a “shock” to the UK economy.

Richard de Lisle, manager of the VT De Lisle America Fund, who has more than 40 years’ experience investing in the US, said: “Donald Trump’s victory is expected to be better for the stock market than for the bond market because of his liberalism.

“It is estimated that Trump’s economic plans would add a cumulative $7.8 trillion to the national debt over his term, as he cuts taxes and increases deficit spending.

“Such measures are likely to maintain current government infrastructure spending plans, sustain consumption and keep the US economy strong.

“Combined with his fierce threats of tariffs, these measures should benefit domestically focused manufacturers and industrials.

“Trump is also likely to break with Presidential impartiality and proactively encourage the Fed to press ahead with interest rate cuts despite big spending plans.

“This combination could keep the economy going while stoking slightly higher inflation, which would be good for commodity related companies that can pass on their costs.

“Finally, Trump’s rhetoric around both protectionism and de-regulation will be positive for smaller companies that have more US revenue exposure and that are advantaged by reduced regulatory burdens, allowing them to grow faster.”

THE Ashridge Estate in Hertfordshire has been used as a backdrop for several blockbuster films thanks to its ancient woodland.

Managed by The National Trust since 1926, the Ashridge Estate is part of the Chiltern Hills, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

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The National Trust still uses livestock to help maintain the diverse habitats, with foresters felling timber to keep the woodland healthy.

With its beech and oak woodlands, fields of bluebells in the spring, and roaming fallow deer, the 5,000-acre site has proved a master in conjuring up wonderful settings.

Disney films such as Angelina Jolie‘s Maleficent and the musical fantasy Into the Woods, starring Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt and James Corden, were all shot in the ancient woodland.

Fantasy movies like Stardust and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire were also filmed in the forest.

And if Ashridge Estate is good enough for Hollywood stars and big-name productions, then it is certainly somewhere Brits should visit for a day out.

This National Trust walk gives some of the best of the autumn colours in the less-trodden areas of the beautiful Ashridge Estate in Hertfordshire.

The 5,000-acre site is home to over 80 miles of pathways, with navigation website Komoot listing 19 different walks – although there are probably many more.

One of those is the Ashridge Estate Boundary Trail – North, a circular walk through the northern half of the site where ramblers pass through Ivinghoe Beacon and Incombe Hole.

A huge draw for visitors is the deer that roam on the historic estate.

The deer were introduced in the 13th century by Edmund Earl of Cornwall who founded a monastery on the site where Ashridge House now stands.

A deer park was created next to the monastery, with the woodland creatures remaining on the site for hundreds of years.

Nowadays, deer roam freely on the huge site, with three different species on the site, including Fallow deer, Muntjac deer and Red deer.

Ashridge Estate is also known for its bluebells, with the flowering attracting large numbers of visitors each year.

The blooming date for bluebells varies depending on the weather, but they’re usually visible in April and May.

Dockey Wood is the best place to view bluebells in Ashridge Estate, with visitors charged a small entry fee of £3.50 to visit last year.

Bridgewater Monument, which is currently closed for conservation works, is set to reopen in Spring 2025.

Before its closure, 15,000 visitors would climb its 172 steps to the viewing platform every year.

From the viewing platform, visitors can see Wembley Stadium and Canary Wharf on a clear day.

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Pitstone Windmill is another top attraction to visit in the woodland.

It’s thought to be one of the oldest post mills in Britain, with visitors able to explore its inside and learn how it works.

Pitstone Windmill is set to reopen in May for the summer season.

There’s also a visitor centre on-site, with a plant shop and a second-hand bookshop, and a cafe on the site.

Ashridge Estate has a 4.5/5 star rating on TripAdvisor from hundreds of reviews.

One person wrote: “The Ashridge Estate covers a large area, and there are plenty of walks to explore.”

“There is some really beautiful scenery to enjoy so have your phone or camera ready to capture what you see”

Another person added: “Stunning gardens and a lovely tea room. There is so much to explore that you would want to spend a day here if the weather is good.”

Ashridge Estate is free to enter, with the ancient forest open throughout the year.

It’s a 90-minute drive from London.

Meanwhile, these camping etiquette mistakes will make other campers hate you.

And these are the best campsites to visit in the UK.

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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Unusually for him, Benjamin Britten suffered from a bout of writer’s block while he was composing The Prince of the Pagodas. The solution came by chance when he heard the haunting, complex music of the gamelan in Bali during a world tour and immediately declared his problems solved.

Britten did indeed go on to complete his only full-length score for ballet, but he never had much affection for it. The work turns up in the theatre from time to time, but the music has become most familiar in the form of a suite that he extracted from the full score.

This release is only the full ballet’s second complete recording, as Britten’s own cuts 20 minutes of music. As his longest work for orchestra, The Prince of the Pagodas deserves attention and this fine recording will now be the place to go.

In designing his two-hour-plus score, Britten looked for inspiration to the master-composer of ballet, Tchaikovsky. He similarly divides up the music into danceable, bite-sized numbers, guaranteeing fast-moving musical variety, but the deeper emotional pull of Tchaikovsky’s ballets is missing.

The score’s strongest suit is its use of the orchestra. With its biting woodwind, growling brass and orchestral clarity, The Prince of the Pagodas is Britten through and through, and the gamelan-like sounds in the “Kingdom of the Pagodas” scene show the big influence the trip to Bali was to have on his music. The Hallé, under its new principal conductor Kahchun Wong, plays superbly and the recording on the Hallé’s own label brilliantly captures Britten’s coruscating sounds.

★★★★☆

‘Britten: The Prince of the Pagodas’ is released by Hallé Concerts Society