“A call to arms”: Triple Olivier Award-winning play EMILIA comes to Canberra

Posted on 16 November, 2022

Over 400 years ago, an exceptional woman raised her voice—but the world didn’t listen.

Now, the story of 17th century poet and revolutionist Emilia Bassano is being told, calling out across the centuries to pay tribute to the riotous, witty, and trailblazing life of a woman who refused to take no for an answer.

But who was Emilia? Was she the ‘Dark Lady’ of Shakespeare’s sonnets? What about her own poems? And why was her story erased?

Coming to the Canberra Theatre Centre from Friday 2 until Sunday 4 December—following acclaimed seasons at Shakespeare’s Globe and the West End—the ground-breaking triple Olivier Award-winning ‘mock-history’ stage show EMILIA will take audiences through the comedy, fury, and rebellion of being a woman in a man’s world.

In this powerful historical drama—one that unapologetically champions all women—Manali Datar, Cessalee Stovall and Lisa Maza each take on the role of Emilia, playing the writer, wife, lover, mother, and muse as a youth, a young adult and as an older woman.

“The play starts with talking about how Emilia has been remembered in history, which is very derogatory in a way,” says Manali.

“We’re questioning, ‘what of that is true?’ and then we tell you in this fictionalised version what could have been the truth of her life. I think it’s an important question though—who gets to write history? Setting the record straight is important, especially for a woman who has had the legacy she has and that hasn’t had the impact she deserved.”

Telling her story from the age of seven to the age of 76, Manali (the youthful Emilia), Cessalee (the young adult Emilia) and Lisa (the older Emilia) bring together combined decades of talent, breathing life—and an Australian accent—into the fierce play.

Each adding a touch of their unique personality to the character of Emilia, Lisa says the play drew her in because she sees it as “a call to arms” for all women.

“It’s a strong story about a woman standing up. It came from the #MeToo movement—that’s kind of where it was inspired—and I suppose it’s a call to arms. It’s about the fact we have fought, and we have achieved stuff, but there’s still more to go,” she says.

“I just felt that Emilia was a good, full character, a strong person who I would be happy to play. And she’s not an Aboriginal character—I’ve done a lot of work where I’m playing a Blackfella and so for me it was like ‘I’m a woman’ and I believe in what the story is saying.”

Written by British playwright Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, one of the things that makes this highly lauded show so special is it features an all-female and non-binary creative team and cast from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Winning three Olivier Awards in 2020—including Best Entertainment or Comedy Play, Best Costume Design and Best Sound Design—even as it explores Shakespeare through a female lens, it still highlights the importance of whose stories we tell and how we tell them.

“The three of us have different backgrounds and races…despite having completely different experiences in the world as women of colour, there are similarities,” says Manali.

“Yes, Emilia is one woman but being played by the three of us, but there is more representation in this unity—that yes, we are different, but we also experience all these similar things. And I feel like there’s more opportunity for audiences to see themselves represented in us, because we’re three different women and have different lived experiences, yet we suffer the same things at the hands of the patriarchy.”

Describing the experience of working with an all-female and non-binary creative team as “nourishing” (and a twist on the Shakespearean tradition of men portraying women on public stages), for both Lisa and Manali the importance of EMILIA is it allows women to tell their own story—a theme that audiences connect to, even centuries after Emilia’s fight.

“As a Blackfella, obviously we’ve been fighting for a long time and people get deaf to us. And I suppose the simple message is just to keep going and be listening to each other. It is a slow process, and you have to be patient because it doesn’t just happen overnight.” says Lisa.

“If you want change, you can’t be afraid of mess,” adds Manali. “Having difficult discussions and trying to empathise—trying to have compassion for someone else’s perspective—will always help us move forward.”

“Even if you only change one person’s view, every conversation you have, you’ll be impacting the world in a more positive way…. that’s why we do it, so it might be easier for the next person the next time around.”

Expect passion, fury, laughter, and song—and the perfect opportunity to support women, women of colour and non-binary people on the stage. Because ultimately, like us, Emilia just wanted her voice to be heard.