THE second half of this celebration of the soul and spirit of Haiti, the world's first black republic, opens with a statement on a giant screen.

It reads: "For 200 years, the international community has punished Haiti for rebelling: she has been violated, robbed, isolated and demonised. An endless array of brutal and corrupted leaders has continued the destruction of their country. Haitians have fled in tens of thousands."

The final sentiment that follows has taken on a new poignancy: "Hope lies amongst the wreckage like seeds awaiting rain."

Torrential rain fell for two weeks last month, swelling rivers and saturating the land, and the storms took their toll, killing hundreds and leaving thousands homeless as floods and mudslides battered Haiti. It never rains but it pours in Haiti, the world's poorest nation. Vodou Nation's run at the West Yorkshire Playhouse - and subsequently at York Theatre Royal next month - had been planned long before Mother Nature dealt yet another bad hand to the Haitian people. "Hope is all they have, because everything has been taken from them," says Geraldine Connor, who has co-directed the show with Vodou Nation's creator and designer, Brett Bailey, the enfant terrible of the theatre of the new South Africa.

Hope runs through the veins of this world premiere, a musical collaboration between UK Arts Productions and the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

The show is a multi-media montage of movement, video, carnival and ceremony, propelled by the African rhythms and ceremonial harmonies of Vodou priest Richard Morse and his Vodou roots and rock group, RAM, the centrifugal force of the show, with their Haitian RaRa horns and Petro drums, rhythm and bass guitars.

Nearly all the lyrics are in French - surtitles would have been useful - and the only speech is an amusing opening greeting as the sparse audience is welcomed aboard the flight to Haiti.

An all-Haitian company of 16 musicians, dancers and singers mark Haiti's 200 years of tumultuous independence by presenting two parallel tales, one representing the spiritual, Vodou life, the other depicting the social, cultural and political.

It is a tale of a priestess and poet queen, African slaves and mermaids, defeated Euopean invaders, an Earth Mother and a deposed dictator in self-aggrandising gold (representing the overthrown President Aristede), whose fall echoes the pulling down of monuments of Saddam Hussein.

The ultimate tone is one of exuberance and resilience, in keeping with Connor's equally colourful, vibrant productions of Carnival Messiah. It corrects Hollywood's misrepresentation of Vodou (the French spelling for voodoo), fuses fantasy with reality and documentary images of conflict with beautiful filmscapes of fish, and its music RAMs home the high in Haiti to counter the lows.

Box office: Leeds, 0113 213 7700; York, 01904 623568

Updated: 11:51 Tuesday, June 15, 2004