A staggering performance, a life-changing journey: Tawiah M'Carthy brings Obaaberima back to life
See M'Carthy perform from his award-winning play chronicling a young African Canadian's release from prison
CBC Arts Presents Queer Pride Inside: A Buddies in Bad Times Cabaret was a virtual cabaret featuring over a dozen LGBTQ Canadian artists that CBC Arts produced in partnership with Buddies in Bad Times this past June in celebration of Pride Month. Over the course of the summer, we'll be highlighting some of the individual performances that were included in the cabaret.
Tawiah M'Carthy is one of Canada's most esteemed and prolific theatre artists, working as a playwright, actor, director, curator and facilitator. His practice uses both African and Western theatre traditions, often "combining movement, sound and text together with theatrical structure, characterization and design." His goal? To create work that "contributes new narratives to the stage — work that reflects the truths of society as it was, is and could be."
That vision in certainly clear in his recent works as playwright/creator/performer, Black Boy (Saga Collectif), MaaNomaa (Blue Bird Theatre Collective) and Obaaberima (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, 2013 Dora Award winner for Best Production). We were privileged enough to include a newly filmed excerpt from Obaaberima in our virtual cabaret collaboration with Buddies in Bad Times, Queer Pride Inside.
Obaaberima — a derogatory phrase in the Akan language Twi which translates to "girl boy" or "girly boy" — tells the story of a young man from Ghana recalling the eve of his release from a Canadian prison.
"Although there is great risk in sharing this tale, he must tell it to be truly free," M'Carthy says of the performance. "Obaaberima is a performance play that chronicles a young African Canadian's journey across continents, genders, races and sexualities."
You can watch the stunning performance above, and learn more about the Ghanaian-born, Toronto-based M'Carthy's work here.
See CBC Arts Presents Queer Pride Inside: A Buddies in Bad Times Cabaret in its entirety on CBC Gem.
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