About Us

Performed Thu 23rd Jun 2022

 A collaboration with WestWords, producer and facilitator of the book

Transforming Silence is the second anthology from WestWords’ LGBTQIA+ writing group, which includes a collection of poems, short stories, script, and audio work. “I have heard from group members of their silences and that the group has provided a possibility to chip away or dissolve those silences. For some of the group their creative practice was in its infancy, while others had and have a surer footing. Even so, all were challenged. There were missteps, dropouts and creative pieces that were eventually pulled from the jaws of their personal silences.” From the Foreword – Wilfred Roach: Facilitator, LGBTQIA+ Group.

The conversation was primarily focused around how their practice of meeting has changed over COVID, and has been shaped by geographic locations – where they live and where they meet, as their collective spans over all of greater Western Sydney; how it’s affected who and how they have been showing up, how they’ve been supporting each other.  

Writers and performers
Mimosa Rose – Reading poetry 
Wilfred Roach – Short story extract
Talisha Ingram – Author of Poem. Read by Yasmin Archibald. 
Vera Enterna – Short story extract
C.C. Tanton-Wright – Author of short story, Read by Brahmi Kumarasamy
Brahmi Kumarasamy – Reading poetry 
Gum Guo – Reading poetry 
Rey Vargas – Podcast extract
Andrew Undi Lee – Play extract, performed by Gum Guo & Rey Vargas

Performed Fri 17th Jun 2022

Written and directed by Kavita Bedford

Shortlisted for The University of Queensland Fiction Book Award, Queensland Literary Awards, 2021 and Shortlisted for New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards The UTS Glenda Adams Award, 2022

A group of friends move from South-West Sydney into a share house in Redfern. They are all on the cusp of thirty and big life changes, navigating insecure employment and housing, second-generation identity, online dating and social alienation—and one of them, our narrator, has just lost her father. Through emotionally rich vignettes tinged with humour, Friends & Dark Shapes sketches the contours of contemporary life. It is a novel of love and loss, of constancy and change. Most of all, it is about looking for connection in an estranged world. The heartfelt and passionate conversation between author and performers was about the intention and ideas around the work, and the reflections of the performers, who resonated deeply with the experiences of the character they played. There was discussion around the different feelings and histories of the settings in the book, such as the juxtaposing of Bondi with Bankstown.

Mawingu Zingine (Other Clouds)

Performed Thu 2nd Jun 2022

Written, directed and facilitated by Mararo Wangai

Kenyan playwright Mararo Wangai performed and wrote ‘Black Brass’ for the 2021 Perth Festival and Sydney Festival 2022. This reading premiered his latest work. Femi, a Nigerian migrant, becomes entangled in a white Australian family’s grief after the death of their son. An addicted father, and an isolated daughter circle the curious and determined mother who both influences and is impacted by Femi and the coincidences bringing them together. The conversation was an in-depth discussion on character motivations, form and process, and the impact of viewing COVID in your home country while living in Australia. 

Cast:
Malek Domkoc
Phoebe Sullivan
Nicola Bartlett

The History of Biafra; the Land of the Rising Sun

Performed Fri 3rd Jun 2022

Written and directed by Perpetua Ekechukwu

Multi-disciplinary artist Perpetua Ekechukwu premiered her new work. In this moving and intimate text, Ekechukwu speaks to her Biafran cultural roots, displacement and the lingering impacts of the Nigerian-Biafran War, including her experiences during the war, and what is happening at the moment in her community. The discussion was a structured Q&A with Perpetua and the cast, as well as answering questions about Biafran culture, heritage, traditions and artists from the audience. 

Cast:
Perpetua Ekechukwu
Jonathan Nnamocha
Marcia Ekechukwu
Destiny Ekechukwu
Prudentia Ekechukwu

Performed Fri 17th Jun 2022

A collaboration with WestWords, developer and publisher of the book

Pan Sandar Myinit is a young Rohingyan woman living in Canterbury-Bankstown collaborating on a poetry collection with 3 young Rohingyan men living in the world’s largest refugee camps in Coxs Bazaar, Bangladesh. With WestWords support they worked with critically acclaimed poet ali whitelock to produce a powerful collection of poetry and photography to create a nuanced conversation and story of tragedy, hope, resilience and the beauty of the human spirit. “We have faced all kinds of barriers and abuses of our human rights in our relatively short lives. Sometimes the smallest few words can make all the difference. They can comfort. They can inspire. These poems share our experiences of being a part of the Rohingya Diaspora. Stay strong, be brave, love hard and true, and you have nothing to lose.” The intimate, moving and inspiring conversation between the artists was around their histories, lives and achievements, and the process of taking up poetry to help them through their experiences.

Kalaga Atu

Performed Fri 6th May 2022

Written and directed by Emele Ugavule

Facilitated by Xavier Breed

Photo credit: Teniola Komolafe

Kalaga Atu is a journey across Oceania that transcends time, space and place, calling ancestral wisdom into the lives of five siblings. Each sibling questions their relationship to the bodies they inhabit, the spirits who guide them, and the sand, soil and salt that they love.

Kalaga Atu, meaning ‘to call’ in the Tokelauan language, weaves poetic text and music in a warm performance experience. Written and directed by Tokelauan Fijian storyteller Emele Ugavule, the original performance included lighting design by Amber Silk and choreography by Sāmoan dance artist Xavier Breed, calling upon kinship ties between the people of the Great Ocean.

The conversation was joyful, as the performers and their families spoke about the process of creating the work, and navigating the impacts of COVID on the team

Kalaga Atu was commissioned by the Art Gallery of NSW.

About Us was launched with this adaptation of the Monkey King mythology by Joe Lui. Enlightenment is the story of The Monkey King and The Buddha… reimagined as two young women in Australia. The most important human being ever born, and the most powerful creature ever to exist. Somewhere in our city, they’re about to hook up.

This is a contemporary queer imagining of one of the ‘Four Great Works’ of Chinese literature. “It opens conversations about the state of people of colour trying to make their way inside of the colonial society that is Australia. About what it is to assimilate and behave, and what it costs us,” says director Lui. The discussion afterwards was very robust, with many audience members sharing their own stories about their experiences with racism, religion and connection to mythology.