Thread by @ManojKamps

Just finished the first proper run-through of #Harriet by @HildaMParedes at #MuziektheaterTransparant, and boy, this piece is going to hit the audience hard.

The realisation that #HarrietTubman died only just over a century ago, and her words are now being sung by an African American woman — the magnificent Claron McFadden — from a town (Rochester) that Harriet passed through on her missions, gives me goosebumps.

I don’t want to give away too much of @JeanLacornerie’s staging, but there are many moments that give me chills. One moment is where Harriet is ‘crowned’ in an intimate ritual that celebrates the hair that saved her from death when an overseer hit her head with a metal weight.

Another beautiful and spine-tingling moment is when Claron sings a version of Harriet’s own words in a beautiful dreamlike collage of acoustic and electronic sound—
‘When I reach the north I’ll watch my hands;
if the sun shines different upon me
I’ll believe I am free.’

So REAL.

I could say much more (I haven’t even mentioned Miwa Matreyek’s animations yet..!) but I think you all should just try and come see this show. It’s powerful stuff.

transparant.be/en/productions…

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