WORD! SOUND! POWAH! (PART THREE OF THE SANKOFA TRILOGY) written and performed by d’bi.young anitafrika (Tarragon, 36 Bridgman). Runs to December 4, Tuesday-Saturday 8 pm, matinees Saturday-Sunday 2:30 pm, in rep with occasional performances of the trilogy’s parts 1 and 2 see tarragontheatre.com. $20-$45. 416-531-1827. See listing. Rating: NNNN
The sankofa trilogy, writer/performer d’by.young anitafrika’s chronicle of three female generations of women, concludes with word! sound! powah!, a vibrant look at the characters’ future and past.
It’s 2012, and the play’s central figure, 20-year-old benu sankofa, is involved in art and politics during the Jamaican national election. Art, for she’s just joined the Poets of Solidarity to explore her talent as a dub poet politics, for this group’s members work for social change through their combined creative talent.
Playing all the characters, anitafrika takes us from a harrowing interrogation at a police station to a freedom rally where a group of poets – a physical performer, a Rasta, a young and cynical mother – parade their different styles of creation.
Key to the piece is a memory episode in which mudgu, benu’s grandmother, takes her to the forest for a rite of passage that connects the young benu to her potent ancestors, protective guides who gives her the strength to face adversity.
But this show is much more than a narrative. From the moment anitafrika appears, she involves the audience in her characters and their lives we don’t just listen to and watch the action but become part of it. It’s that synergy between actor and viewer, even if it occasionally takes a minute to sort out who’s speaking, that makes the production so special.
Anitafrika inhabits the body and characteristics of each of her characters, transforming – with the help of Michelle Ramsay’s lighting – from village gossip to smarmy politician, from stuttering poet to angry policeman.
She gets fine help from the rest of her team. Musical director Waleed Abdulhamid’s score, which performed by Jeff Burke, Kurt Huggins and Laurence Stevenson, is haunting and evocative, underlining both the action and the characters. Camellia Koo’s set, a tree that reaches out over the audience, helps encompass us within the play’s world, where current events (Ghadaffi’s death is part of the action) blend with age-old figures.
That’s one of the joys of anitafrika’s work as playwright, actor, poet and musician: her work is constantly changing, adapting, growing, questioning. She throws herself non-stop into a performance, her presentation always fresh and electrifying. How exciting to watch her mature as an artist.
And stick around for the brief talkback after the 75-minute performance. You’ll get another look at the heart and intelligence of this extraordinary woman.
