Adapted by Michael Mohammed Ahmad and Janice Muller.
Based on the novel by Michael Mohammed Ahmad.
Presented by Urban Theatre Projects.
Following its acclaimed debut season at the 2015 Sydney Festival, The Tribe, a uniquely Arab-Australian story, will be performed in a backyard in Newstead.
Based on Michael Mohammed Ahmad’s award-winning novel of the same name, The Tribe is a story of belonging and family. Performed by the inimitable Hazem Shammas as ‘Bani’, a small boy who finds his way in a young country by recounting tales of the old. At the heart of The Tribe is Bani’s love for his Tayta, his grandmother, who is a central presence in his life. She carries all the truths of The Tribe – a small Muslim sect that fled to Australia from Lebanon. Hazem’s Bani is like a visionary child channelling a Bedouin storyteller, amidst the Hills Hoists, paling fences and sprawling, thirsty vines of backyard Australia.
‘You couldn’t get a more perfect setting for the story – a pregnant moon, a sky that felt like it was on the verge of busting open with summer rain… Shammas is a wonderfully expressive storyteller, with an easy, natural charisma that transfixes your attention. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll wish the story didn’t end.’
Time Out ★★★★★
Director: Janice Muller
Performer: Hazem Shammas
Composer and performer: Oonagh Sherrard
Stage manager and lighting designer: Frank Mainoo
