An Australian Nativity Story is a special presentation at Belconnen Community Church tonight and Canberra City Uniting Church on Christmas Eve. The two churches have joined together for this multicultural musical and dramatic celebration written and directed by recent migrant to Australia, Kabu Okai-Davies.
Okai-Davies, originally from Ghana, lived in America for 18 years where he founded and directed the African Globe TheatreWorks Company. He brings to this production his personal beliefs, as a Methodist in Ghana and being active in the St James African Methodist Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey, mixed with his extensive experience in community theatre as a writer and director.
He has taken the Black Nativity, written by the iconic African-American poet Langston Hughes, as a basis for writing scenes using Biblical text, workshopping with the church members, young and old, to find ways of re-working his ideas into an Australian context, re-writing the script and incorporating music and song from all the cultures represented in these churches.
A particular delight is a Christmas carol such as Silent Night sung by three Tongan women with the slow haunting harmonies and rhythms of their sea-going people.
Though the participants on stage are not experienced performers – indeed this is a celebration by church members for themselves as much as for the general public – the production process has been as much about learning theatre as about celebrating religious faith. With Stopera stage manager Liz Topperwien as production manager, training has not only been in performing by Okai-Davies. Stage Manager Nell Feneck has already been fingered by Topperwien to take over the whole production next year.
Okai-Davies has a grand vision, seeing the Bible as the source of drama, tragedy, comedy and satire which he plans to use for bigger and better celebrations of this kind as the years go by. He sees An Australian Nativity Story as the beginning of a new tradition in a new theatrical genre which he calls Theatre of Faith.
However, this is not to be seen as limited to a particular sect or even a particular religion. Okai-Davies explains that “entertainment transcends race, sex and all of humanity’s issues” bringing together people of all religions and cultures. He starts from the Shakespearean quotation “If music be the food of love, play on” and reinterprets it to say “Music is the food of love, and let us all play together”.
This year’s small-scale work, which has been prepared in only one month, is planned to become a “mass ecumenical celebration” in Civic Square in the future. Bringing people of all beliefs together in celebration is the “key to what Christianity is all about”, says Okai-Davies.
In developing the characters in the spoken drama and the songs, the play takes Biblical figures, using text from a range of translations, and places them in a thematic structure so that they become symbols relevant to modern life rather than only representing the ancient past.
And to make the point, the children in the workshop stage of production made it clear that the conventional blue with silver stars would not do in Australia. So look for the green and gold!
An Australian Nativity Story
by Kabu Okai-Davies
Belconnen Community Church
93 Hennessy St, Belconnen
December 22, 7pm
Canberra City Uniting Church
69 Northborne Ave, Civic
December 24, 7pm
Donations: Adults $10, Children $5, Family $25
For further information: 6255 5532 or 0405 447 845
© Frank McKone, Canberra
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