1 minute read
Verses of Love & Life Selected Poems of Taha Muhammad Ali
MUSIC AND LYRICS BY TOSHI REAGON AND BERNICE JOHNSON REAGON (UNITED STATES) DIRECTED BY ERIC TING (UNITED STATES)
“A Prescient Sci-Fi ‘Parable’ Gets Set to Music” - NEW YORK TIMES
“Difficult to imagine a performance that could be more filmic, visceral or dramatic” - THE NATIONAL, UAE
4 & 5 May
FRI & SAT, 8PM
Victoria Theatre
2h, no intermission
$35*, $50
*Limited concessions available for students, NSFs and seniors
Limited student tickets at $10
A genre-defying work that harnesses 200 years of rousing Black American music to tell a post-apocalyptic tale of survival through song.
Parable of the Sower fuses science fiction, AfricanAmerican spiritualism, deep insights into gender and race, and climate activism to construct a mesmerising meditation on the future of human civilisation.
Written by Toshi Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon, the musical adaptation of Parable of the Sower follows Octavia E. Butler’s novel in chronicling the spiritual awakening of young Lauren Olamina, amidst a dystopian America wracked by the violence brought on by climate change, unrelenting greed, and systemic injustice. It is eerily prescient.
A multi-talented singer, songwriter, composer and music director, Toshi Reagon is one of the most accomplished musicians of our times. American music and entertainment magazine Vibe described her as “one helluva rock’n’roller-coaster ride” while cultural magazine PopMatters called her a “treasure waiting to be found”. Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower is Toshi’s latest collaboration with her mother, Bernice Johnson Reagon, an iconic singer, scholar, activist and founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock, who has been a profound contributor to African American and American culture for over half a century.
This captivating theatrical work of rare power and beauty is directed by Obie award-winning director Eric Ting, and produced by Singapore-born, US-based director and producer Wang Meiyin.
Rating: General
