More Shakespeare musings

This month has been an exciting and interesting time with several new initiatives and ideas progressing to the next stage. Most notably, I had a fab meeting with artist Hazel Albarn. I met Hazel through her daughter Jessica (whose solo exhibition 'Resurrection' opens at the Lawrence Alkin Gallery in London this week http://www.lawrencealkingallery.com/events/resurrection). Hazel works with organic materials to create beautiful, earthy sculptural pieces; her work in paper was of particular interest, given the theme of magic and books in The Tempest, which is likely to be the next major Bilimankhwe project. I am so incredibly excited to announce that she has agreed to join the creative team for The Tempest to create a set design which can be adapted for use both in Malawi and the UK. Her experience of working outside the UK, most notably in Africa (although she also did some very interesting work around books and paper-making in Japan) will be invaluable. She is however mostly known for her theatre design work with Joan Littlewood at Stratford East in the early 1960s and her famous artist/musician son Damon, for whom she recently made a moko jumbie puppet. She is currently fascinated with puppets and masks which I hope will also form part of the design for The Tempest.

So the game is most definitely afoot! I have just come back from a very interesting and energising lunch with Dr Sonia Massai of King's College London, in which we talked about various Shakespearean productions we had seen. A lovely wide-ranging chat which always gets my creative juices going! Of course the conversation inevitably turned to The Tempest, and the various merits of colour-blind, and in a term coined by Jude Kelly, 'photo-negative' casting.

When I first started thinking about The Tempest, I had a conversation with Muthi Nhlema in Malawi (he was my assistant director on 'An African Dream' back in 2005, and now a writer whose opinion I very much respect). We were talking about the colonial themes, and how we could make that clear in the casting: my idea was to have Caliban and Ariel played by black Malawians as the original inhabitants of the Island, and the Colonisers (Prospero and Miranda) as white. He was keen to switch these, to challenge the stereotypes and make people think about how humanity organises itself into the oppressors and the oppressed.

Sonia reminded me of the American production of Othello, directed by Jude Kelly, which did exactly that: Patrick Stewart's Othello was the only white cast member, the rest being played by African-Americans. While this was largely a successful production, Sonia thought that casting a play so simplistically, reversing 'white' and 'black' roles might be seen as a gimmick, a tokenistic approach to a serious topic. In her words, there may well be a collective shrug, a 'so what?' in response.

This is very interesting. Casting a play about colonial oppressors with the white people as the subjugated indiginous people would be a hugely political statement in Malawi. But here in the UK it might be seen as simplistic, tokenistic. Is this a reason not to do it? I think not. the plan is to start this production in Malawi, to rehearse and open the show there in 2015. Then in 2016 to bring it to the UK as part of the commemorations of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. Perhaps we should first gauge the reactions of the Malawian public and then take a risk with UK theatre-goers.

We are just at the start of this journey, and already the conversations we are having are incredibly rich. Exciting times ahead.

Malawian Politics

Interesting times in Malawi. An election was held. Declared invalid by the incumbent President to an outcry from the opposition, who could smell power. The courts got involved ... a re-count was ordered but there wasn't enough time so everyone shrugged their collective shoulders and let the original count stand. So welcome Prof. Arthur Peter Mutharika, and commiserations to the losing candidates, Rev. Chakwera (the closest challenger), Joyce Banda and the Young Pretender Atupele Muluzi.

This election has got me thinking though. What is it about political dynasties that everyone likes so much? Are we really hard-wired to have a monarchy so that we revert to it as a default position? However able the new president proves to be, I can't help thinking that he got in on a 'better the devil you know' ticket. Even though his brother Bingu led the country into the worst economic, political and diplomatic crisis in decades and was deeply unpopular, somehow the collective memory has been wiped, and the majority of voters want to see the DPP return.

Unless of course Joyce Banda was right, and the DPP were guilty of electoral fraud.

I suppose we'll never know, now.

My friend Seodi White, an intelligent and highly educated lawyer who lives in Malawi, is a supporter of Mutharika and was an outspoken critic - famously so - of Joyce Banda, the outgoing president. I respect her opinion, and am really hoping she's right this time. But I am watchful and wary of this new-but-old administration.

Fingers crossed.

Fun Palaces

So I'm off today to the Theatre Royal Stratford East to discuss Fun Palaces. But what is a Fun Palace, I hear you ask. Well ... here is what the organisers say:

What is a Fun Palace?  Based on Joan Littlewood and Cedric Price’s 1961 idea, it is a welcoming, inclusive space sharing arts, sciences and learning. It’s fun. It might have music, theatre, lectures, dance, tutorials, playing, sitting down, lying back – whatever you want. It is created with and for local people, for all ages. It is free, with public engagement at its heart. It can happen in a village square, a theatre foyer, a museum corridor, a school canteen, it might take over an entire venue or a street, it might be a small tent in a field. Every Fun Palace will be as unique as the people making it and its locale. More about Fun Palaces : www.fun-palaces.com

Sounds interesting, doesn't it?

The Epic Adventure of Nhamo the Manyika Warrior and his Sexy Wife Chipo

Off to the theatre last night - the press night of a new play by Denton Chikura at the Tricycle Theatre. I was really looking forward to it, as I have loved Denton's work as an actor and theatre maker (most notably in Two Gentlemen of Verona which played last year at The Globe) and worked with him during the research and development of Jack Mapanje's new play. Also this was to be the directing debut of Lucian Msamati, Artistic Director of Tiata Fahodzi and one of my favourite actors.

So it was with some trepidation that I approached the theatre ... I so wanted it to be good, as I would see both Denton and Lucian there and I am a bad liar!

Luckily, this was a fabulous evening. I haven't laughed so much in ages, and in spite of being seated right at the top looking down at the stage, I had a really brilliant time. While the ensemble of four actors worked beautifully and they were all splendid, Nyasha Hatendi as Commander Specimen still managed to steal the show with a perfectly timed comic performance which was truly masterful. The rest of the ensemble, Don Gillet, Ery Nzaramba and Tanya Fear also had their moments of brilliance and the lovely simple set by Ben Stones was beautifully lit by Paul Keogan.

This was a really successful intercultural show - with a cast drawn from Africa (Rwanda and Zimbabwe) and Britain, a Zimbabwean/British writer, a Zambian/British director and an Irish Designer, it was truly global and made full use of the opportunity to draw from differing cultures. Western cultural references jostled with Zimbabwean goatherd jokes, and on the press night the diverse audience at the Tricycle joined in enthusiastically when given the opportunity to 'ooh' and 'ahh' at the outrageous performances.  This was an upfront, over-the-top celebration of humanity: I laughed my socks off. Don't whatever you do miss it!

Working with Complicite

Here at Bilimankhwe we're buzzing with our newest project - we are collaborating with Complicite, one of the UK's most respected theatre companies, on a project in Malawi.

It's all come about after we were approached by Jamie Hampton of the Chauncy Maples Trust. The Chauncy Maples is an old ship which is currently in dry dock in Malawi being converted into a floating clinic. The Chauncy Maples Trust has raised a staggering amount of money to convert it, and it will soon be travelling to otherwise inaccessible communities on the northern shores of Lake Malawi, bringing much needed healthcare.

The idea is that a travelling company of actors will travel on the ship, performing wherever it docks. The shows will be in local languages (chichewa, yao and tumbuka), have health themes and will help to publicise the clinic. 

To kick the project off, we are sending two teachers from Complicite to Nanzikambe's Mwezi Wawala Festival at the end of August to run a 3 day theatre-making workshop for Malawian artists. 

One of us will also be there to co-ordinate and participate in the workshop. 

This is a fantastic example of how theatre can really make a difference in the world, and we are proud to have been part of it. 

More African Shakespeare on its way from Bilimankhwe ...

Amy Bonsall writes :

CULTURAL ISSUES IN THE EXCHANGE OF SHAKESPEAREAN THEATRE BETWEEN THE UK AND MALAWI

This is the name of my PhD thesis. I am hoping to start my PhD AT Roehampton University in January 2014, with the support of Bilimankhwe Arts UK and Nanzikambe Arts in Malawi. It is really a whole new area of research and we aim to create a new international theatre research branch for form part of the work of Bilimankhwe Arts. The idea has developed from the very successful production of Romeo and Juliet in 2012, I felt that there was much more to discover in the text than the 3 weeks we had for rehearsal would allow, and we wanted to create a genuinely cross cultural experience for both UK and Malawi audiences. As a director it will be a big shift in my thinking and practise to go back to academia, but it will have a substantial practical element too and the aim is to develop our discoveries into further productions and collaborations as well as writing papers for academic journals and attending conferences.

It is an exciting time for us at Bilimankhwe, while we don’t have any major productions planned for 2013 in particular showcasing the amazing work of South African writer Mike Van Graan, we have smaller projects and we are doing the groundwork for some very exciting productions and co-productions over the next 3 year. Keep checking the website for more details.

We are also beginning the process of adding to our board of trustees, because we are developing and expanding it is very important to have a board who can support us in our work fully and who are diverse in their skill set. Details of new members to be announced soon.

Love on Trial

We're all rather excited, as Charlie and Roe are going into rehearsals tomorrow for Love on Trial. A one-man show starring Bailey Patrick, it looks like it's going to be rather good. Intercutting the short story by Stanley Kenani about illegal homesexuality in Malawi with the press frenzy surrounding George Michael's arrest for 'lewd conduct' in a public toilet in LA it's lively, thought provoking and often hilarious. Check out the trailer, filmed and edited for us by Fred Rich:

book to see the show ... click here!

In other news ... we've got several extremely exciting potential projects on the go ... a collaboration with Nanzikambe in Malawi, a new play by Roe Lane and a collaboration with a South African writer to name but three. But as the funding is still pending, watch this space for the announcements ...