Calgary theatre company presents performance of award-winning solo show for Black families

University of Lethbridge graduate Makambe K. Simamba presents her award-winning solo show Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers and Little Brothers in Calgary at Arts Commons through Sept. 28. (Photo: Tarragon Theatre/Cylla von Tiedemann)

There was a unique performance of Handsome Alice’s production of Makambe Simamba’s Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers, and Little Brothers Saturday night at the Big Secret Theatre, when Simamba performed in front of an almost all-Black audience on Black Family Night.

The solo show, written and performed by Simamba, was inspired in part by the 2012 shooting of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, who was killed by George Zimmerman, a community patrol guard at a gated community who felt threatened by Martin’s presence.

Directed by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, the show is a bit of a fever dream, with ‘Slimm”, aka Trayvon, waking up in the afterlife immediately after his death and trying to make sense of what has happened..

Simamba, who was born in Zambia, grew up in the Caribbean before emigrating with her family to Canada and studied theatre at the University of Lethbridge, uses her dance training almost as much as her actor training to physicalize Slimm's spiritual journey.

Performing for a predominantly Black audience is an inspiration that was taken from Jeremy O. Harris, the creator of The Slave Play, who started Blackout Night on September 18, 2019.

“For the first time in history, all 804 seats of Broadway’s Golden Theatre were occupied by Black-identifying audience members in communion, celebration and recognition of Broadway’s rich, diverse and fraught history of Black work," Harris said on the Blackoutnite.com website.  A second Black Out performance of A Slave Play was held in January 2020,

Simamba said she’s done several predominantly Black audience performances of Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers and Little Brothers in Kitchener, including one for Black high school students.

“There is also a growing tradition of having a Black Family Night or a Blackout Night in Toronto,” she added, “so I’ve experienced it a few times as both a performer and as an audience member – and it’s so special.”

'I am the captain of the ship'

She said the experience of performing it for a predominantly non-Black audience is different, but not necessarily any less gratifying.

“In a predominantly Black audience,” she said, “performing the show, there’s a different recognition and familiarity I believe of the characters, the world, the circumstances and the stakes of the story – and so there’s something about that depth of familiarity with a Black audience that I find resonates in maybe a more profound way.

“When I have a predominantly non-Black audience, or white audience specifically,” she said, “With no other people of colour (in the crowd), I notice that – yeah, first of all, I just want to acknowledge I’ve had such incredible experiences and it always feels like the audience is with me, and they’ve bought in, and are along for the ride, but if I’m to make a generalization for how it feels for a Black audience versus a very white audience, to speak in almost a binary, I feel like with a predominantly white audience, I feel like I’m steering the ship.

“I am the captain of the ship," she said, "and I feel like those passengers are genuinely on board and engaged and watching my every move – and that’s a beautiful experience right? That’s what you want. You want everybody engaged and along for the ride.

“But with Black audiences, something happens energetically – and I don’t just feel like I’m the captain of the ship, I feel like I’m a passenger on the ship and so is the audience.

"I’m the captain and so is the audience. I’m the ship and so is the audience."

"It’s very different," she added. "It’s subtle and difficult to articulate, because it’s a very small shift and (yet) that very small shift is enormous in terms of what it feels like for me, but I feel a little more available (as a performer) to sink into the heavy parts of the show – and to sink into the heartbreak because I feel held (by the audience) in a different way.”

Like a prayer

The other significant difference, she said, is the way the audience reacts at the end of the show.

“With predominantly white audience, I receive a lot of appreciation right after the show (ends),” she said. “People will usually applaud right away, which is wonderful to feel validated and I feel really appreciated and seen as a capable performer.

“But with a predominantly Black audience,” she said, continuing, “the experience elevates for me from that of a performance to that of a prayer.

“What I’ve noticed, as a generalization with a predominantly Black audience, is that during the first few moments after the show, they don’t clap – they just kind of sit there in silence and meditate like a prayer – like after a prayer is done: you just sort of hold it and reflect on the energy that’s done.

“And that’s not to say I’m not appreciated as a performer – I think that I am – but it’s the first initial response is that the crowd at a Black Family Night tends to hold a space for you, especially when we’re telling stories that have to do with our own trauma.

“I feel like there are a lot of stories out there that don’t deal with their Black trauma, that don’t do it with respect or care," she said, "and so it’s important for me to be able to create spaces for Black folks to be able to have that room, if they like, and to be able to feel safe, to feel all the feelings that they’re able to cry – that they’re not going to be questioned – and to be able to belly laugh right after they cry and know that they are safe to do that and know that nobody is going to question or interpret that in a way that’s harmful or think that they can do the same thing and not fully understand the heart of the experience.”

Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers and Little Brothers won two Dora Awards for Best New Play and Best Solo Performance when it premiered in Toronto. It’s on at the Big Secret Theatre in Arts Commons through Sept. 28.

For tickets and info, go here.