FRI | 5.5. | 8 pm
HEREANDNOW 2023
as british as a watermelon
A Film by mandla
Photo: Graham Clayton-Chance
“My name is mandla. It means power. I gave it to myself.”
mandla has a selective memory and struggles to piece together a life largely forgotten in the name of survival. In ‘as british as a watermelon’, mandla asks questions about belonging, trauma, and forgiveness by exploring fragmented memories of asylum and migration.
In an unsparing autobiographical narrative that weaves together poetry and stories with destruction and colourful chaos, we join mandla’s rise from the dead and reclamation of lost power.
mandla is a queer writer, performer, and curator from Zimbabwe. mandla is agender and has no pronouns. mandla’s work typically explores an intersectional existence imposed on the artist’s body as a result the world we live in.
The film will be screened in the artist’s presence and followed by an artist talk. The film is in English.
Written and performed BY mandla
Director / Editor / Sound Design Graham Clayton-Chance
Produced by Jayne Compton for Switchflicker Productions
Director of Photography Benjamin Liddell
Creative Advisors Sonia Hughes and Jo Fong
Costume John Krausa
Set Designer Michael Hankin
DATE May 5, 8 pm
There will be an artist talk following the show
UK 2021 Dir Graham Clayton-Chance 28 min
(On 6 May, mandla will perform a short excerpt from as british as a watermelon as part of the event Spotlight on British Theatre.)
HEREANDNOW is supported by
