Interweaving singing, dance, and cutting-edge theatre, Gorges Ocloo’s ground-breaking AfrOpera re-examines Nana Yaa Asantewaa’s defiant stance against colonialism and cultural appropriation.
Bizet and Handel go head-to-head with Aretha Franklin and Lady Gaga as Ocloo deconstructs (and reconstructs) western music while drilling into the legacy of Asantewaa and her all-female brigade – specially formed to thwart British designs on a revered symbol of Asante identity: the Golden Stool. Underpinned by a score enlisting a percussion machine and boomwhackers, a 10-strong female cast creates a mesmerising piece of music theatre.
