LUKUMI
PLAYWRIGHT'S MESSAGE
Ase Ancestors. Ase Esu. Ase Orishas. Jamaica has an almost 60 year tradition of Dub Poetry, emerging out of Jamaican culture & Reggae music, in which the Dub Opera, Lukumi is grounded. Lukumi is an experimentation & practical continuation of the work of my mother, Anita Stewart (one of the pioneers of Dub Poetry & graduate of Jamaica School of Drama). Her Thesis ‘Dubbin Theatre: Moving Dub Poetry Into A Theatrical Form’ was written in 1985. In it she theorises that the principles of Dub Poetry she identifies in her paper, can be transferred to theatre. My mother’s work, the work of my mentor ahdri zhina mandiela, as well as my being raised in Jamaica, steeped in theatre and Dub Poetry, have provided the foundation for my own theoretical work in the development of the Anitafrika Sorplusi Method. Lukumi, the 3rd play in the Orisha Trilogy, is a direct exploration of this new method, which forwards the seminal work of my mother, theorised some 30+ years ago by my mother. Miss Lou, Jamaica’s pioneer Dub Poets & theatre practitioners such Poets in Unity, Mikey Smith, Sistren, Oku Onoura (who coined the phraze Dub Tieta which later became Dub Theatre) & countless others who experimented with Dub Poetry and it’s graduation into theatre, have all impacted upon my own experiments with form, movement and ritual. The musical is an exploration of Dub Poetry as it meets Jamaican theatre aesthetics including Pantomime, performance poetry, myth and large scale political spectacle theatre. The production was dramaturged, directed & choreographed by celebrated veteran Jamaican theatre & dance practitioners Eugene Williams whose Anancy Method has been instrumental in further devising Lukumi and choreographer Dr. L’Antoinette Stines whose L’Antech Method grounds the movement of the piece. My long-time collaborator veteran Sudanese master musician Waleed Abdulhamid created a musical soundscape soaked in myth and mysticism. There would be no Lukumi without Waleed Abdulhamid! Your music and mentorship are the backbone of the art I create. A very special shout out to you Djanet Sears who redefines mentorship through your embodied integrity, patience, dramaturgy and love. It took one session with you to set me on course to where I am now with this project. Thank you to all my mentors.
It’s been a real pleasure working with d’bi as dramaturg and director, on this exciting project where her evolution (as writer, performance activist, teacher and Africanist) has reached a conjunctive engagement and experimentation with multiple voices/genres/themes that reflect some of the complex legacies and politico-cultural tensions of our troubled times.
The protagonist (Lukumi - playwright surrogate) travels through a ritualized rite-of-passage wrestling issues of identity and a ‘call to purpose’ in the midst of horrendous environmental destruction and growing infertility. The journey is framed within the world of Yoruba mythology where Lukumi’s ‘call ‘as an agent of renewal, invokes the myth of retrieval of the fundamental energy of the deity Oshun as a necessity for balance and order in the face of cosmic chaos. Lukumi’s quest to understand the recurring ‘dream-call’ is triggered by her own infliction of an anguished fertility of consciousness.
The proverbial trickster of the crossroad - Anancy/Eshu/Alegba is her journey’s enabler. His divining capers transport her through the portals of death into dreamtime and the apocalyptic future where the survivors are forced to live in caverns within the earth. Here she encounters stories of human devastation of the earth, through a magical storytelling feast: visual collage, dub poetry and song as she struggles with her own demons of displacement and the accusatory history of modernity’s destruction of humanity, community and ancestral allegiance. She returns eager to love and daring to face the ever-present armies of hate and ruination…vowing to teach.
I trust that this offering of d’bi’s characteristic distillation of Nation Language through ‘rhythmisized’ voice, body, movement and mythic admixture helps to energise the discourse on environmental and political issues and personal responsibility while providing an evening of entertaining theatre.
DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE
