'A stirring deliberation on the choices we make and how they shape our lives, Black Brass is a theatrical feast; playful yet mysterious. Written and performed by Mararo Wangai, joined live onstage by musician Mahamudo Selimane, this intimate and soulful experience celebrates stories of resilience – private victories rather than public actions.
'Arriving to clean a music studio late at night, Sleeper encounters a stranger who speaks only in music. The man is fascinating and oddly familiar. Slowly the pair are drawn into each other’s orbit, as each man tries to reconcile a past that refuses to let go and a present that is unwilling to accept. Through flashback narrative and music, moments of darkness are tempered by soulful songs as the pair hurtles towards a pivotal decision that must be made come sunrise.
'Black Brass draws inspiration from interviews conducted with Perth’s Zimbabwean, Sudanese, South African, Central Congo, Mauritius, Nigerian, Congolese and Kenyan communities on the theme of resilience. Through its story it gives voice to the marginalised, offering a window into the lives and voices not often heard in the theatre.'
Source: Perth Festival.
After the announcement that Sydney Festival was receiving partial funding support from the Israeli Embassy for the staging of Decadence (by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin), Belvoir Street Theatre announced that Black Brass would still go ahead at the 2022 festival, but that they would no longer be receiving direct financial support from the festival.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/jan/04/sydney-festival-boycott-more-than-20-acts-withdraw-over-israeli-funding (Sighted: 13/01/2021)
Commissioned by Perth Festival, and presented by Performing Lines WA at Studio Underground, 4-7 March 2021.
Director: Matt Edgerton.
Dramaturgs: Afeif Ismail & Matt Edgerton.
Script Editors: Matt Edgerton & Sisonke Mismang.
Musician and Composer: Mahamudo Selimane.
Set and Costume Designer: Zoë Atkinson.
Lighting Designer: Lucy Birkinshaw.
Sound Designer: Tim Collins.
Cast: Mararo Wangai and Mahamudo Selimane.
Presented by Performing Lines WA at Belvoir Street Theatre (Upstairs Theatre), 6 - 23 January 2022 (Sydney Festival co-production).
Director: Matt Edgerton.
Dramaturg: Afeif Ismail.
Set and Costume Designer: Zoë Atkinson.
Lighting Designer: Lucy Birkinshaw.
Musician and Composer: Mahamudo Selimane.
Script Editors: Sisonke Mismang and Zainab Syed.
Sound Designer: Tim Collins.
Community Engagement Coordinator: Wanyika Mshila.
Cast: Mararo Wangai and Mahamudo Selimane.
'An intimate journey between memory and reality, where the personal meets the political, is a quiet triumph in contemporary storytelling.'
'The scene opens into a messy music studio, used bottles and pizza boxes littered everywhere. A young man of sub-Saharan African descent appears, exhausted, entering the room late at night.' (Introduction)
'The scene opens into a messy music studio, used bottles and pizza boxes littered everywhere. A young man of sub-Saharan African descent appears, exhausted, entering the room late at night.' (Introduction)
'An intimate journey between memory and reality, where the personal meets the political, is a quiet triumph in contemporary storytelling.'