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Blood.Claat One Oomaan Story

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Blood.Claat One Oomaan Story GREAT CANADIAN THEATRE COMPANY blood.claat one oomaan story STUDY GUIDE A play written and performed by Directed by d’bi.young anitafrika Weyni Mengesha mudgu sankofa, a 15 year-old girl in Kingston, Jamaica, is bridging the gap between innocence and maturity. As blood – both life blood and death blood – cycles through her coming of age story, mudgu encounters her cleanliness- obsessed granny, a machete-wielding stranger, her reggae-loving boyfriend and her church-going aunty. Helping her traverse her past, present and future lies mudgu's mother, who left her in search of a better life for herself and mudgu in Canada. Fusing theatre and dub poetry, the extraordinary artist d'bi.young anitafrika portrays mudgu with wit, charisma and power. Student Matinees Welcome to the Great Canadian Special thank you to Mar. 10 Theatre Company! GCTC’s Student Matinée 12:00pm Noon Partners Study Guide researched and written by Jim McNabb GCTC’s Education Program GCTC STUDY GUIDE blood.claat Page 1 The Play Contents The Place and Time: The Play ………………………… 1 East Africa in the beginning d’bi.young anitafrika Toronto Airport immigration desk actor/playwright/dub artist About the Play ………. 2 - 3 three years earlier Set and Costumes………… 4 Nanny Town, Jamaica 1730-1732 Excerpt from the Kingston, Jamaica present day Script ………………… 5 - 6 The Plot (in brief): In her formative sixteenth year, Jamaica: Facts, History, mudgu is caught between the Features .………… 7 - 11 expectations of her granny and blood, a dub poem ……. 12 auntie and her boyfriend, is Traditional African emotionally wounded by the violence and incest in the Religion …………………. 13 community, but is strength- Plot in Detail ……… 14 - 15 ened by the presence of her Additional Resources …16 mother and her ancestors. The blood of her menses Activities ……………. 17 - 18 contrasts with the blood shed Curriculum References 19 violently but links her with the anitafrika is one of Canada’s blood of her strong female most celebrated young artists, What’s On in the Lorraine foremothers who carried the winning the ‘07 Toronto Arts Fritzi Yale Gallery …… traditions of Africa to America. Council Foundation Emerging ..………………………… 20 - 21 Artist award. She has performed, published, and Theatre Etiquette ……. 22 The Creative Team lectured internationally. As a dub poet, anitafrika has Written and Performed by: headlined numerous festivals in d’bi.young anitafrika Calgary, Vancouver, Havana, Director: Weyni Mengesha and Toronto. She has self- Set and Lighting Designer: produced five dub albums. Steve Lucas Her stage work include: da kink in my hair which garnered Upcoming Plays Costume Designer: An exciting 2009 -2010 her a Dora nomination for Erika Connor season of plays outstanding performance, the Composition and Sound South African play Have You ♦ Apr. 13 – May 2 –- Facts Designer: Seen Zandile and mudgu in her Thomas Ryder-Payne very own blood.claat; for which ♦ June 8 – June 27 – Heroes she received a Dora award for Stage Manager: Samira Rose outstanding performance ‘06. Visit us at www.gctc.ca Apprentice Stage Manager: blood.claat is the first piece Adrienne McGrath in anitafrika’s biomyth-trilogy three faces of mudgu sankofa. WARNING She is currently completing the Some teachers may feel second and third plays: that some of the material in this Study Guide is androgyne – a poetic two-hander inappropriate for their and word!sound!powah – a dub students. Please read it opera carefully beforehand. GCTC STUDY GUIDE blood.claat Page 2 About the Play Page 1 of 2 How it Came to Be d’bi.young anitafrika is a dub poet, playwright and actor who lives in Kingston, Jamaica and Toronto, Canada. In 2002, in response to a poem 5 nights of bleeding by dub poet linton kwesi johnson dealing with violence, d’bi.young was inspired to write a feminist version dealing with attitudes to women’s blood, aptly named blood. (A copy of that poem is included in this Study Guide. A caution should be noted because some may find the language offensive.) d’bi.young was attempting to dispel the stigma against menstrual blood with the view that it is life blood as compared to death blood resulting from violence. Furthering this theme, ms young set out to write a play about the women in her family, the violence in Jamaica and the strength drawn from understanding blood. As Klive Walker states in his introduction to the published version of the play: In blood.claat, young takes this idea, the connection to blood – particularly women’s blood – to birth, puberty, menopause and death, and roots it in an African-Jamaican experience so that it provides a complex understanding of how slavery informs the present day condition of African- Jamaicans. Then very skillfully, she extends this metaphor to include life-blood as a transformed weapon of women’s liberation. Even the Jamaican curse word adopted as the title of the play is drained of its profane character. ‘Blood.claat’ [menstrual cloth] is no longer simply an exclamatory term of derision or anger that carries within it a negative connotation of blood. The womb of the play morphs that expression into a symbol that is positive and life affirming. young also examines the violence endemic in Jamaica in the light of its past colonial rule based on slavery. The play is semi-autobiographical. Structure and Language blood.claat is written and performed in Jamaican Patois (see page 9), the colloquial language of the people descended from the slaves brought from Africa. Only in the recent past has Patois been recognized and honoured as a distinct language on the Island and abroad. Dub poetry plays a large part in the magic of the language of this play, the rhythms and images evoking strong emotions which are enhanced by the percussion and vocal background. The play is essentially a narrative, the story of a girl’s coming of age. It begins with a ritualistic libation to the ancestors and the future generations by Yamoja, the goddess of motherhood. The play has an episodic structure with scenes moving in and out of the past prompted by a stream of consciousness. mudgu is buffeted in the series of scenes between the shame and scorn of her menstrual blood by some people in her life and the pride in womanhood shown by her absent mother and ancestors. The conflict comes to a resolution with the blessing by her granny as she becomes the mother of a new life, one which will continue the legacy of the great heroine Queen Nanny. Themes and Issues The various themes and issues examined in the play include the deeply ingrained shame of woman’s blood, prejudices based on gender and class, the confusion of adolescence, the curse of incest, the roots of violence lying in a history of slavery, the importance of pride of history and race, the strength of motherhood and the value of traditional African religion. GCT STUDY GUIDE blood.claat Page 3 About the Play Page 2 of 2 Characters yemoja: deity of the West African Yoruba religion, the goddess of the ocean, the essence of motherhood and the protector of children; Mama Afrika; the symbol of blood. granny: a fifty-year-old oomaan (woman) living in Kingston, Jamaica who loves her granddaughter mudgu. She is ashamed of blood. Canadian Immigration officer: believes and practices blood hierarchy. stamma: a young bus conductor who stutters. He fears the loss of his power and draws blood to maintain it. queen nanny: a chieftainess/priestess/healer and military leader of the Maroons in the 18th century. She knows the power and magic of blood and fights to protect her children’s children. ogun: the deity of metal, warfare and hunting in the Yoruba religion. (Similar to Ares in Greek mythology and Visvakarma in Hindu mythology.) His arrogance and temper cause blood to be spilled wrongfully. njoni: mudgu’s boyfriend who lives on her street and runs a DJ business which he dreams will bring him fame. He is repulsed by and afraid of menstrual blood. auntie: mudgu’s thirty-five-year-old aunt experiencing early menopause. She is a Christian fundamentalist who uses her faith as a blindfold. She lives in denial of blood. uncle: auntie’s husband. He is a blood-killer. pearl johnson: village gossiper. She is excited by blood stories. mother: mudgu’s thirty-five-year-old mother now living in Toronto with plans to bring mudgu to a new life. She understands and respects life blood. mudgu sankofa: a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl on the verge of becoming a womban (woman), learning about blood, both life blood (her menstrual power) and death blood (violent bloodshed). She learns from her community, her immediate relatives and her ancestors, and in doing so connects her roots with her future. 3 percussionists/vocalists who beat drums, sound the abeng (an animal horn which was an instrument used by slave masters to call their slaves as well as by Queen Nanny to communicate with her Maroons). They also tell the story of blood. GCTC STUDY GUIDE blood.claat Designs Page 4 The costumes for this one-oomaan show, designed by Erika Connor consist first of all for the goddess Yemoja of a long flowing red skirt representing a river of blood, a girdle of finely embroidered cloth studded with cowrie shells and a headdress. This is then changed for a simple, neutral, beige dress easily adaptable for the multiple characters played by the single performer. The set, designed by Steve Lucas, consists of a neutral, pentagonal playing space backed by a scrim through which the silhouette of a large iroko tree towering over a small altar is seen at times.
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