Review by Rohan Alston-Fisher
Lose to Win is Winning hearts
Belvoir
The Q – Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre
The audience quickly quiets down as a man offstage begins to play a catchy beat on a djembe. The man, still playing the djembe, walks on stage, sits down alongside various musical instruments and the show begins.
Lose To Win, directed by Jessica Arthur, written by (and starring) Mandela Mathia, is a semi-autobiographical musical experience from Belvoir Street Theatre which toured to The Q, Queanbeyan.
Accompanied by skilled musician Malin Sylla playing a variety of traditional African instruments, Mathia takes us on a journey of anecdotes, some happy, some sad, all interesting, of his fascinating life. We follow Mathia’s story through South Sudan, Egypt and finally Australia. Interspersed with beautiful renditions of Sudanese songs that feature a mix of Western and African music styles, he shows us all the different cultures he’s experienced. The heartwarming performance ends with a great musical number of dancing, reflecting Mathia’s positive outlook on life despite the many hardships he’s faced.
The set builds on the idea of Mathia’s multicultural background and the impressions he was given by these many places. Suitcases, knickknacks and a variety of different instruments stacked on top of each other to build a rudimentary wall help build the environment for the very intimate themes of the play. The set acts as an extension of Mathia’s memories and experiences, every time he picks out a prop for an anecdote, it feels like he’s quite literally picking out a memory to share with us.
Set changes aren’t needed – all Mathia needs to represent travelling to a different place is a slight change of lighting and his description and physicality let our imaginations take us there with ease. With a detailed set, it can be hard to make the audience think they’re anywhere other than where the set is, but Mathia manages this really well. Making the set ambiguous helps this goal too. The mixture of different items from various cultures and communities aids Mathia in making the location be wherever the next anecdote in his fascinating life is. He manages to transport us from Cairo to Sydney airport by simply picking up a suitcase.
In a world where hearing other people’s stories is more important than ever, performances like Lose To Win help keep the diverse storytelling culture of Australia alive. The show gives us a valuable insight into some of the lives that rarely make it onto our stages and reminds us just how much sharing our stories can matter.
