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| Photo by Adam Rankin |
This Saturday at the Theatre Passe
Muraille Mainspace, Obsidian Theatre presents the first in our 2011/12 Season
Development Series of plays in progress. Starting us off is Joseph Jomo Pierre’s
fiery and imaginative new play Shakespeare’s
Nigga, an exploration into the iconic Black characters in the Bard’s work. We
wanted to talk to Joe about this play and his process so we asked Mel Hague,
our resident dramaturg and Artist Development Coordinator to talk to him. She sat
down with Joe to talk about Shakespeare, Aaron, and the “N” word.
Mel Hague: Tell me, why did you start
writing Shakespeare’s Nigga?
Joseph Jomo Pierre: This
speaks to why I been on this play for all these years. I made a pact with
Aaron. I told that dude I was going to write his story, and I'm sick enough to wanna keep my word
to a literary character. That's a bit cryptic but what happened was I got the
role of Aaron at theatre school and was excited as hell to play the
character. I asked a teacher for some advice on how to approach the character
and he told me to play him as pure evil. It
was a what the fuck moment for me, we were obviously connecting to this
character on different levels. Right there I
swore I would tell Aaron's story.
MH: Is Shakespeare your villain or
hero?
JJP: Creating the piece I
tried not to be limited by those terms. Those are always the sort of conclusions you leave for the
audience to make. For me he served as a jump off to the questions I wanted to
deal with. Those questions and how we deal with them are much richer to me than
shitting on some dead white dude. Though I think some might see it as shitting on him a
little.
MH: What’s your favourite Shakespearian
quote?
JJP: I don't know about
fave, but one that has stuck with me since writing this play is, "is black
so base a hue?" That is some heavy shit for a black man to ask. Cop
pulls you over for no reason you ask him, Is black so base a hue. "I can't
rent to you on this side of town", really, is black so base a hue. That’s
some heavy shit to me.
MH: How about using the word ‘Nigga’ in
your title?
JJP: There was and to a
lesser degree still is an uproar over the word. Queen Oprah wrote it off, the NAACP buried it. I'm not
for burying a word, because it’s been soaked in so much pain. But what is great to me is that my relationship to the
word isn't static, I still sometimes question how I use it, how others use
it. I am prone to squirm when I'm not cool with the context it is sometimes
used in. But my character claims it and that opens the door for a discussion
about language. I'm cool with that.
MH: Should people be afraid to say your
title?
JJP: You know what, that
is part of the whole discovery. I mean, that is what it is called so they can
say it, but what is telling and what is open to discovery is the ease with which they can do
so. Their level of comfort or I should say discomfort can lead to some kind of
personal reflection. Hell if I can have an audience that involved before they
even hit the seats, I think this is a show that needs to be seen. Like seen,
seen with a 4 week run and shit :P.
MH: What was the first Shakespeare play
you ever acted in?
JJP: The first joint I
did was Mid Summers I got to rock out to Oberon, thinking about it now. I guess I was Shakespeare's Nigga earlier
than I thought, but at least I was the HNIC.
MH: How have you used Shakespearian
language and poetry?
JJP: You know the
integration of Shakespearean text was pretty natural for my style. When I do this sort of blending I always
picture it as the DJ layering samples. However
as it pertains to my writing voice in this piece it was never my goal to work
with some faux Shakespearean voice. I wasn't attempting to pass this off as Shakespeare's work. In fact the
first attempts at the piece were constructed with really modern speech patterns
the sort of things I'm known for. But that wasn't the piece, it wasn't the world that was begging to be shown. In the
end I found this hybrid language to roll
with.
MH: Why is this play important now?
JJP: It is important now
because it hasn't been done (I mean the play). It is important because dealing
with themes of slavery is something that people don't want to fuck with. I'm talking young
people I'm talking older black people. And I get it, I get not wanting to only
be identified by that alone. But there is
much for us to gain by not discarding history, finding new ways to discuss it.
Broadening the discussion from one we think we know to something far reaching
such as control/ power, the use and abuse of control/ power regardless of
colour.
MH: Finally, and most importantly, what
is your favourite colour?
JJP: Gotta be Black and
all its variants, red, white, yellow, blue.... Jump on my Twitter, I plan to be
on my tweet game during the workshop. @bruised_berry
The Blacker the
Berry the Deeper the Bruise- Shakespeare's Nigga (JJP)
Shakespeare’s Nigga will be presented at Theatre Passe Muraille
this Saturday at 2pm. Come out to see a staged reading of this wicked and
challenging work featuring the stellar cast of Joseph Pierre, John Jarvis, David
Collins, Andre Sills, and Sascha Cole directed by Philip Akin.
