Project Description

OMAR MUSA

Canberra Theatre Centre

30th January 2019

(Live Review)

Reviewer – Benjamin Smith

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Older, predominately female, almost exclusively white. Asked to speculate on the make-up of the audience for Omar Musa’s Canberra performance that isn’t likely to be the first answer most people would give but it’s the most accurate description of the profile of those amongst whom I find myself on this mid-week night. This is the second time Musa has performed here at the Canberra Theatre, the last time being with Briggs and the Bad Apples crew on the inaugural Reconciliation Day Eve celebrations.  Tonight, the hometown boy returns with a completely different one man show, one stripped of hype and defined by an intimate intensity.

Musa’s show is tripartite. It combines poetry, hip hop and a continuous narrative woven between like a series of vignettes. The themes are consistent, and Musa returns to race, family, friendship, masculinity and love over and over again. He is at times funny, occasionally confronting and frequently melancholy.

The show follows the progress of four primary narratives; the first a dream in which he sails unknown waters with his childhood hero Muhammad Ali. The second focusses on his clearly strained relationship with his father, one defined by discipline and faith and the less fraught relationship with his mother, defined by compassion and curiosity. The third focusses on his relationship with his childhood friend, a boy born of violence and war, the impact of who’s death continues to shape Musa’s view. The final theme is a burgeoning romantic relationship. Through the interlacing of these narratives the audience learns much about Musa’s upbringing on the banks of the Queanbeyan river, brushes with petty crime and development as a man and as an artist.

The significance of Ali in Musa’s life becomes clear when he talks of being told as a child that his skin was the colour of shit. His father showed him old fight footage of Ali and impressed upon him Ali’s pride in his blackness and his Islamic faith. More about his progression through life is revealed when he speaks of the vitriolic hate directed to him by former Labor leader cum serial public pest Mark Latham. The irony of that is compounded when Musa talks about living in California and taking buses hundreds of kilometres to the Australian Embassy to both vote and campaign for Latham in ’04.

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Musa’s show works on a number of different levels. He understands how to work an audience and, having clearly clocked the dynamic of this one early on, instinctively knows how to play to it, not quite pandering but certainly framing in such a way as to massage the message where it’s most effective.  The seating room only setup works perfectly to create a relationship with the artist that is akin to a living room or back bar storyteller. Though some of the material is confronting it is never threatening; it’s delivered in such a way so that it creates a bond between Musa and the audience. His skills as a raconteur and as a writer are on display and the format of the show means that the darker moments are expertly offset by precise injections of levity.

What makes the show most effective though is the content of Musa’s message. There are uncomfortable areas in to which he isn’t reticent to wade but despite the painful recollections of familial isolation, racialized division, death, loss and rejection Musa’s message is ultimately one of hope. He is optimistic and he genuinely appears to embrace the possibilities of the future.

Without any set dressing and with the only accompaniment piped pre-recorded through the speakers he delivers the entire show, with the exception of two numbers on which he is joined by talented and expressive vocal partner, as the only thing onstage; the only thing on which the audience can focus, creating an intensity that remains for the duration.

This was an exciting and satisfying performance from one of Australia’s most dynamic talents. Where Omar Musa’s career takes him from here will be fascinating to witness.

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