Review: Obaaberima

(photo credit: Jeremy Mimnagh)

In Between Everything

by Jason Booker

A new play by a new performer.  What to expect?  Is it a version of their life or total fiction?  Will it be brilliant or disastrous?  Will one side of the performer-writer be stronger than the other?  Or will it be all about finding a balance, living in between?

Obaaberima by Tawiah M’Carthy is one of those plays that strives to be in between everything. 

Agyeman, born in Ghana and on the eve of his release from a Canadian prison, introduces himself, orange prison jumpsuit half-on, half-off, posing at extreme angles and staring defiantly at audience members.  The play transitions to tell how he got there from an eight-year-old self slipping into his mother’s dress and high heels while left at home alone to now, following him through the schoolyard bullying he encounters, the local tailor who rescues him from a beating and encourages the young Agyeman to be true to himself.  Punctiliously dropping in on the character every few years as he develops, Agyeman gradually meets other men, falls in love and moves to Canada to train as a lawyer. 

deriving from the words obaa (woman) and oberima (man)

Always juggling the personal and the political sides of himself – what he presents to others and how he feels internally and what those two often contradictory things mean – Agyeman straddles the lines between male and female, native and immigrant, spiritual and sexual.  The title itself tips its hat to this place in between as well, deriving from the words obaa (woman) and oberima (man), which are blended into a derogatory term meaning girlyboy.

The set carries on the theme of living in between as well.  Camellia Koo designed a forced perspective series of jail cells, two walls of three openings that lead to a wall of bars with a door that never opens.  The set blends into the space at Buddies but creates a realistic sense of oppression and confinement. 

Each of M’Carthy’s characters is sharply and clearly defined by posture, physicality and voice.  There is no doubt who is speaking at any given moment, thanks to the work by director Evalyn Perry, who is aided by Michelle Ramsay’s lights which use the prison doorways to delineate space for each of Agyeman’s lovers.  Ramsay employs more shadow than colour in her design to a strong effect, creating a world of dark to challenge the light.

The performance plunges an audience into the unique situations and characters but does not fully engage.  Unfortunately, being a coming-of-age story, much of the narrative journey seems familiar, even when the details are as fresh as they are here, blending traditional song and dance with stylized movement, a riveting series of character performances and evocative design elements.

The use of live sound, created on over a dozen North American and Ghanaian instruments by Kobèna Aquua-Harrison, masterfully underscores Agyeman’s journey to himself, creating mood and complimenting heartbeat themes, thumping away below the action.  Situated on the second tier of the second, the musician is always present but never pulls focus from M’Carthy’s performance.

Sometimes the supporting characters appear more compelling than the lead, however M’Carthy as a performer captivates and quickly returns focus to him, if not his characters.  The just-slightly-too-long script also contains some instances of repetition that feel unnecessary, occasionally dwelling on the inevitabilities of coming-of-age stories (like the hurt resulting from the end of first love) and avoiding the obvious climax of narrating the offense that lands Agyeman in prison, which seems like a missed opportunity.

Living in between can be rough – but isn’t that exactly what teenagers are doing as they grow from carefree childhood innocence into more responsible and realized adults?  Well, awkward as it may be, that seems to be the world that Obaaberima inhabits.  Fantastically unique, though not entirely different from other plays that tackle these issues, McCarthy and collaborators has crafted a show that might not astound but challenges and captivates.

Obaaberima continues to October 7