Tag: Lisa Fa’alafi

HIVE CITY LEGACY

Cabaret
Photo Helen Murray

HOME

Written and developed by Busty Beatz, Lisa Fa’alafi and Yami Löfvenberg and A League of Extraordinary Femmes

Directed by Lisa Fa’alafi

There is a new hive in Manchester this week and it’s not the one on the roof of HOME. Anyone who witnessed the anarchic and joyous cabaret spectacle that was HOT BROWN HONEY when their hive landed at HOME in December 2017 will have some idea of what to expect from Hive City Legacy. This show is a collaborative project between the Australian company, their producers Quiet Riot and Roundhouse. A call out in 2018 for young British Femmes of Colour to expand the hive led to the creation of this new show. Heavily influenced by the original cabaret blend of beat box, body popping, aerial work, spoken word and burlesque, this new production zeroes in on London. Stories of matriarchy, mental health, marginalisation and harnessing the power of the Hive to once again ACTIVATE POLLINATE LIBERATE.

The staging is simple but effective creating a honeycomb effect with lighting that allows for creating office parties and commuter trains while also giving a sense of magical wonder as boxes open Pandora like to reveal snaking flags and oversized combs and tape measures. In the midst of all this is a wide eyed ingénue (Farrel Cox), drinking in the truths both joyful and distressing of being a young femme of colour in a still marginalised country.

The performances by all eight femmes are full of savvy confidence, boisterous energy, anger and poignant sadness. These femmes are in your face enraged and disturbed by a world where their history is being swallowed by your history and oceans are swallowed by puddles. There is a definite sting in the words and actions of these femmes in this hive and they are definitely all queen bees in their own right.

The segments are varied in pace and style. Ropework beautifully showcases trust and faith in each other when you quite literally put your faith on the line. Office parties teeter into violent discomfort as voices assault our senses and sensibilities with racist taunts and stereotypical assumptions. The national anthem plays alongside the snaking endless swirl of the English flag while spoken word pieces are unfueled from the mouths of these femmes.

Hive City Legacy has many of the trademark magic touches of the Mother Hive and is lovingly directed by one of its founders Lisa Fa’alafi. The joyous finale has everyone on their feet dancing with the femmes. Enough of us taking to the stage and we might just outgrow the Hive and start to truly ACTIVATE POLLINATE LIBERATE!!

At HOME 3rd – 7th Sept 2019

Hot Brown Honey

Cabaret, Circus, Dance, Large Theatres

HOME

Briefs Factory presents Hot Brown Honey 

Six vibrant First Nation women wearing identical shellsuits on a stage dominated by a huge gleaming, pulsating honeycomb hub. Our MC is Busty Beatz  (Kim Bowers) a co-founder of Hot Brown Honey and she is loud and  proud and magnificent towering above everyone astride the honey dome. Below is the other founder, Director and Choreographer Lisa Fa’alafi who I met briefly as I took my seat in the theatre. These women are chatty and welcoming as they stroll  around the aisles before the show. They are upfront and direct, almost immediately the audience is told a collection toward their childcare will be passing through the aisles because as Lisa says The Revolution can not happen without  childcare. 

Suddenly the performance ramps up the energy. I can’t fully hear everything. I’m blinking as the lights flash powerfully on the honeycomb dome. The performers are hi octane and nothing is going to stop them. It’s too loud!! It’s too bright!!! It’s too……DO NOT ADJUST YOUR SET. WAKE UP. GET ON BOARD. ROCK THE BOAT. THIS MAY JUST BE THE TRIP OF YOUR LIFE.

There is zero tolerance of stereotyping as MC Beatz quotes from the 2009 TEDTalk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The Danger of a Single Story. There are no single stories here and this is reinforced by a show that defies any genre. This is burlesque, cabaret, song, beatboxing, hip hop, poetry, hula hooping, aerial silks, sermon and comedy. This is an EVENT and like its orchestrators it cannot be pigeonholed.

This is an intelligent, passionate celebration of womankind in all its colours, shapes and creeds of politics, religion and sexuality. There is a strong burlesque influence running through all aspects of this show. This is burlesque as gender politics defying any attempts at body shaming. Women standing proud and celebrating perfect boobs, giant inflatable  boulder boobs, pussies that may or may not have  seen childbirth, giant padded feline pussies, bodies curvy or lean, skin that gleams or has cellulite or skin blemishes. Women using burlesque to own their own bodies using the frequent vivid costume changes to drive the stories. Fa’alafi describes the experience as the decolonisation of our thoughts and inhibitions. The poet and playwright Maya Angelou was also a burlesque dancer in her early years; and it a very powerful tool of expression and liberation.

There are group sequences ramming home the message We Are Not Maids. Shellsuits are shed to reveal cheeky Princess Megan t-shirts then shed again to reveal maid costumes. MC Beatz dons a massive Afro for the anthem Don’t Touch My Hair.  Fa’alafi delights with a reverse striptease parodying the fantasies of bare breasted Polynesian maidens in grass skirts. This is no coy blushing maiden or unskilled island girl. Our Lisa is surrounded by leaves but deftly fashions shoes and bags like a fashion forward icon. The glorious voice of ‘Ofa Fotu rips apart the James Brown anthem It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World while she wears a stifling costume that clearly alludes to a golliwog doll. Elena Wangurra battles the confines of the Australian flag and triumphantly emerges as a superhero in the vivid colours of the Aboriginal flag. The beat box skills of Hope One pound through the speakers while Crystal Stacey spins hoola hoops with the dexterity that most women multi task. Domestic violence is portrayed in a way that is gut wrenchingly shocking. Crystal Stacey performance was my personal highlight as she escaped violent assault by using aerial silks. Her performance was exquisite and horrifying and incredibly poignant. Literally hanging by a thread this was a truly visceral evocation of desperation, determination and resilience. We do this for the Women who cannot speak. We are taught that silence will save us. But we will make noise.

The Speaker of this Hive asks Will you stay the same or rock the boat? The Hot Brown Honey mantra throughout this amazing show is DECOLONISE AND MOISTURISE or as Fa‘alafi  says We want to decolonize the World , one stage at a time. The audience are on their feet dancing. The atmosphere is electric. The Party Manifesto is clear and this is one party you won’t want to miss.

HOME until Saturday 23rd Dec