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King Cotton is the first stage play in 20 years by McGovern, the Liverpool author of TV dramas Hillsborough, Cracker and The Street and premieres at a hugely significant time.

2007 marks the bicentenary of the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, a trade which underpinned the thriving Lancashire cotton industry of the 19th Century and the expansion of Liverpool as a port of international significance.

The story which reaches an emotionally wrought conclusion is driven by a group of musicians performing music inspired by the traditional sounds of Northern mill towns and the plantations of the Deep South.

Interview with Jimmy McGovern:

Tell us a bit more about King Cotton...

"It’s about a black slave who escapes and joins up and fights and he joins a ship called the Kearsarge. And we have a mill worker called Tom and his child dies as kids did then and, filled with grief and anger, he joins up. But he joins the Alabama to fight for the South. And the two ships go out and collide at the end.

This must be very difficult to stage in the theatre?

"Incredibly difficult. But I know nothing and that gives you a courage the like of which you’ve never experienced. I know absolutely nothing but Jude Kelly (the director) knows everything. I say: ‘What do I do Jude?’ And she says: ‘How would you write this if it were a movie?’ And I say: ‘I’d do this – black hands on crystal glass.’ And she says: ‘Write it.’ I watch her work with actors – we’ve got this group of actors who can burst into song in a second - they are amazing. So you’ve got a talented director like Jude and this cast you would die for."

Tell us about the music?

"What we are doing is using all the songs from the cotton fields – there’s just some amazing stuff. And we’re trying to blend it in with the action of the play. We don’t stop for a song. If there’s a scene unfolding, there’s a black slave saying to his ‘master’: ‘Non serviam – I will no longer obey’. And he’s going to shoot the black slave. And the black slave’s girlfriend is absolutely distraught. Meanwhile, this quasi-Gospel music strikes up – ‘Leaning on the Lord’ – it’s a fantastic song! – and this goes alongside the action. That’s the kind of approach we’ve used there.

"In the mill towns we’re using a brass band. So you get black spiritual music often accompanied by a brass band. Which is amazing to behold!"

King Cotton is a co-commission between The Lowry and the Liverpool Culture Company. King Cotton is at the Liverpool Empire from 25 September to 29 September 2007.