Outstanding Production, 2014 Bessie Awards
A magnetic performer.
A breakout success—evocative and fresh.
Just as her body does, her words take the stage with full physical force—they spasm, buckle, fall and rise, flex and strain, and they tear like muscles’ tendons.
AUSTRALIAN EXCLUSIVE
Writer, Performer and Sound Designer Okwui Okpokwasili
Director, Visual and Sound Designer Peter Born
Channelling the epistolary storytelling tradition of gothic novels, critically acclaimed artist Okwui Okpokwasili delivers a remarkable solo debut.
Two 11–year–old girls pass clandestine notes in a sex–saturated, mid–80s, sixth grade classroom. Raw, honest and precocious, they trade barbed insults, nasty gossip and a heated intimacy entangling their bodies and their minds.
In an intensely physical reflection on adolescence, Okpokwasili summons the spirits of her youth and transforms them into a hypnotic and joyfully irreverent blend of song, sinuous dance and eye–opening confession, played out with caustic wit and raw emotion.
Having built a reputation alongside cutting–edge New York directors and choreographers including Julie Taymor, Ralph Lemon, Dean Moss and Young Jean Lee (WE’RE GONNA DIE, Melbourne Festival 2012), Okpokwasili delivers a command performance.
POST-SHOW TALK
FRI 09 OCTOBER
Stay after the show for a talk with Okwui Okpokwasili and Arts House's Artistic Director Angharad Wynne-Jones.
STAGE ON SCREEN
ACMI
WED 14 OCTOBER AT 6PM
Okwui Okpokwasili takes part in How Can You Stay in the House All Day and Not Go Anywhere?, a contemporary performance film from Ralph Lemon.
Photo: Ian Douglas
