i know all the secrets in my world - The Albany
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
TIATA fahodzi have announced their biggest tour to date with i know all the secrets in my world. A duet of love and loss between father and son exploring grief, masculinity and how we communicate when speaking is impossible, it will visit The Albany (March 3 and 4, 2016) as part of a national tour.
A father and son struggle to find ways to communicate following the unexpected death of their wife and mother in this poignant, moving performance exploring absence, fantasy, gender roles, disconnection and the permanence of love.
Collaborating with an all-male cast, an all-female creative and production team use sound and movement to illustrate the grief process in this unspoken and universal multi-love story of men, women, fathers and sons as the two men try to cope with the everyday and understand what family means without her.
tiata fahodzi, the UK’s leading African theatre company, embark on a new direction as they celebrate their 18th birthday following Natalie Ibu’s appointment as Artistic Director in 2014. The company, whose approach to diversity extends offstage, onstage and across their content, will make their wider touring debut across the UK with i know…
Natalie Ibu, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of tiata fahodzi, said of i know all the secrets in my world: “It’s a story about what it is to love and to lose. For me – not just as an artist and a programmer but as an avid audience member – it comes from a deep desire to multiply the – sometimes singular – narrative about who we are and the lives we live.
“Here are a black African heritage father and son – like any father and son – simply living, loving and hurting; the story enhanced by cultural specificity but not defined by it. i know all the secrets in my world explores what we have in common because being African heritage doesn’t affect the way we love and how we grieve. The production is a departure from our text-based tradition and aims to multiply the way we tell our stories.
“At tiata fahodzi, the how is as important as the what – we want our productions to be as formally inventive and courageous as our peers. The diaspora exist in the ‘in between’ and I’m interested in what that means for the work so we’re experimenting with work that fuses forms and mixes methods.
“i know all the secrets in my world is a playful love letter as it tries to find a language for the unspeakable. It delights in life’s contradictions – chaos in the silence, delicacy and femininity in the masculine, memory in the present. The i know… tour is the largest in our 18 year history and sees us deliver on our ambition to make great art for everyone.”
i know all the secrets in my world toured the Summer 2015 festivals as a work-in-progress as part of tiata fahodzi’s summer season, sharing a work-in-progress version of the work to sell out audiences at Pulse Festival and the New Wolsey in Ipswich, Latitude Festival and Departure Lounge at Derby Theatre.
Presented by tiata fahodzi in association with Watford Palace Theatre, i know all the secrets in my world is written and directed by Natalie Ibu and performed by Solomon Israel (father) and Samuel Nicholas (son).
The production is designed by Alyson Cummins, with lighting by Asuza Ono, sound by Helen Skiera and movement direction by Annie-Lunnette Deakin-Foster.
The tour opens at West Herts College, Watford (January 27-30) before continuing to The Porter Theatre, Framlingham College; Pegasus Theatre, Oxford; Salisbury Playhouse; Unity Theatre, Liverpool; Lincoln Drill Hall; Bristol Old Vic (studio); The Lowry, Salford; The Drum, Birmingham; Nottingham Playhouse; Mercury Theatre, Colchester; and finally The Albany (March 3 and 4).