Burlesque play preaching female empowerment opens in Vancouver
'We want people to feel inspired to stand up in their seats and dance and make some change,' says director
Hot Brown Honey is billed by its creators as a burlesque play delivering hip-hop politics with the aesthetics of a Beyoncé concert.
"Fighting the power is the main narrative, you know that fierce women, centre stage, owning our bodies, owning our stories, taking it all back," said co-creator and performer, Lisa Fa'alafi in an interview with The Early Edition host Stephen Quinn.
The Australian play — which is showing at the York Theatre in Vancouver throughout this month — is part of the the Cultch's Femme January showcase to celebrate the female experience.
Fa'alafi said the all-female cast of Hot Brown Honey is comprised of black and brown performers who don`t look like stereotypical Australians.
"We just kept seeing a lack of brown faces [on the] screen, on the stage, everywhere, so we were like, you know what? It's time that we write ourselves onto that centre stage," said Fa'alafi.
Fa'alafi said the topics presented in the play are based on their stories, which she says have been erased and neglected.
"I think a lot of women will understand the pressures that are put on our bodies continuously, and I think if you're any First Nations people, it's another level again. It's very symbolic," said Fa'alafi.
"It's actually to interrogate, ask people to interrogate their own views about what they see in our bodies."
She said the troupe has been working on the play for the past five years, but with the emergence of the #MeToo movement, they feel they're playing a small part in that huge conversation.
"We can feel the rise coming, we can feel the change coming and people are being more engaged in those conversations, so they are also reading our show better and better each day," said Fa'alafi.
The play runs from Jan. 9 to 27.
With files from The Early Edition