John and Waleed
By John Millard and Waleed Abdulhamid. Directed by Marjorie Chan. Until March 5 at Theatre Passe Muraille, 16 Ryerson Ave. Passemuraille.ca or 416-504-7529.
Though it’s co-produced by two theatre companies (Cahoots and Passe Muraille), this curious, understated evening comes across as more of a musical event than a theatrical one, starting with the partial reconfiguration of the Passe Muraille Mainspace into a cabaret setting.
John Millard, from Kitchener, and Waleed Abdulhamid, from Khartoum in Sudan, met in Toronto through work as professional musicians. They learned more about each other’s background and musical traditions by teaching each other childhood songs. Both are in middle age and have impressive professional credits in music, theatre, and as educators.
In Marjorie Chan’s production they sing and play original compositions, accompanying themselves on a variety of instruments, some associated with Western/North American and some with African musical traditions. That they don’t stick to the instruments connected to their background – Millard plays kora as well as banjo, and Abdulhamid plays bass guitar as well as percussion and string instruments from his own tradition – demonstrates the strong sense of trust and interchange between them on personal and cultural levels.
As such the performance offers an admirable demonstration of multiculturalism in action. We’re a long way from the 1980s wave of white pop stars such as Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel working with African and other so-called non-Western artists in ways that, however well-meaning, reinforced existing hierarchies. These are two Canadian artists (as he relates in the show, Abdulhamid emigrated in 1991 and is now a citizen) working on equal terms.
The show is less compelling in terms of storytelling than it is musically; the two performers come across as more comfortable communicating through song than the spoken word. Material is presented anecdotally rather than being deeply explored, as with the observation that Kitchener is named for the general who conquered Khartoum. Given that this is billed as a theatrical production, more consistently talking the audience through the histories and significance of musical instruments and traditions would have been helpful. Kaitlin Hickey’s projections, while beautiful to the eye, layer on more images without the production making clear their relationship to what’s being said and sung.
While we find out about some of Millard’s family background – he talks about a trip to Scotland to find out more about his grandmother – Abdulhamid focuses on the time he’s lived in Canada, including some unpleasant experiences being racially profiled in airports. He also mentions his dismay at the effects of the current US immigration ban on refugees and migrants, though this is not foregrounded but rather presented in the same mild terms as both men express frustration with overcrowding on TTC streetcars.
As such the show provides something of a respite from the levels of anxiety being expressed about current events via mainstream and social media. There’s something sweetly utopian about a final montage of images of Torontonians of different ethnicities and ages all smiling at the camera, but also a lingering sense that this show did not fully exploit the capacities of theatre to contexualize and critique the questions of cultural difference and cultural synergy that are its subject matter.
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