Tawiah M’Carthy is an artist who thrives on pushing past boundaries into new spaces. His latest directorial effort, Sankofa: The Soldier’s Tale Retold, exemplifies his special talent for tapping into diverse talents to breathe new life into classic works. In reimagining Igor Stravinsky’s 1918 theatrical piece L’Histoire du Soldat with a fresh libretto by poet Titilope Sonuga, M’Carthy takes on a project that is both musically intricate and thematically bold. And for him, the production is more than a simple retelling—it is a reclamation of erased histories and a poignant statement about resilience, struggle, and hope.
Set against the backdrop of the No. 2 Construction Battalion, the only Canadian battalion of Black soldiers to serve in the First World War, this adaptation follows a fictional soldier’s journey to enlist in WWI. The soldier’s psychological battle with the Devil mirrors the battalion’s ongoing external struggle against racism, discrimination, and historical erasure. The world-premiere production features Diego Matamoros as the Devil, Olaoluwa Fayokun as the Soldier, and Ordena Stephens-Thompson as the Narrator, with musical direction by Andrew Burashko, and a seven-piece ensemble from The Glenn Gould School performing Stravinsky’s score.
M’Carthy fully embraced the challenge of directing this production, which is as intricate musically as it is thematically resonant. His involvement in the project began with a serendipitous email from Burashko, Art of Time Ensemble’s artistic director, on the recommendation of Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu, who is the artistic director of Obsidian Theatre. “When Andrew mentioned The Soldier’s Tale, I had never heard of it,” recalls M’Carthy. “I spent some time watching recordings, and I was going, ‘huh, why me? I have no musical background’ was my first thought. And I didn’t even know how to describe what this production was!” When he did some research, the best categorization seemed to be “an opera without singing” – which sounds oxymoronic. It was Sonuga’s libretto that offered M’Carthy his way in: “What drew me to this project was reading Titilope’s new text. I began to understand what Andrew and Titilope were trying to do, and how I could actually serve the piece.” At the same time, he saw how the piece could serve his own growth as an artist: “A challenge is always a good thing, It was going to expand my skill set, and I was going to learn a lot.”
At the heart of this production is the symbolism of the Sankofa bird, a West African symbol that represents returning to one’s roots in order to move forward. The show blends past and future, with the rhythm of Sonuga’s poetry interweaving through Stravinsky’s original music. It is also a concept that deeply resonates with M’Carthy, both personally and artistically. “I was born in Ghana, moved here, and studied acting in university here in Canada,” he reflects. “I spent quite a bit of my young adult life trying to erase the things that made me me, so that I could fit into a culture.” For M’Carthy, Sankofa (a word in the Twi language of Ghana which means to go back and retrieve what was forgotten), has become a guiding principle: “It’s a model I live by. It’s a model from which I create,” he says. “If your roots are intact, no one can shake you. You know who you are…. You’re better. You can better look up to the horizon and imagine what your future looks like.”
This idea of reclaiming erased histories is central to the production, and M’Carthy hopes that Black audiences, in particular, will connect with its significance. “Our history books do not include us for the most part,” he notes. “But this is the time where we need to go deeper into research: to find out where we were, how we contributed, and say out loud that we were there.”
Olaoluwa Fayokun, who plays the Soldier, was crucial in tapping into the physicality of the piece. “A lot of the conversation I had with Lu on this project was talking about our own experiences as Black bodies in white institutions,” M’Carthy explains. This extends to “even thinking about the music itself”. It “is very classical, very Eurocentric, and made to support a story that did not include the Black body.” So for M’Carthy, the key was delving into the experience of “being in a world that’s trying to erase you, that has no space for you, that wants to use you, abuse you, and neglect you.” In such a world, the only way to survive is to know exactly who you are: “If you don’t believe in anything, you believe in everything. And there’s something important about believing in something.”
The ambitious act of collaboration to create Sankofa has been deeply rewarding for M’Carthy, who doubles down to describe it as “a shared experience in the… sharing of skill.” Working alongside Sonuga and Burashko has yielded a merging of diverse talents. And although his familiarity with classical music was limited at the outset, the process has deepened his appreciation for the piece. “I’ve learned so much from the conversations with Andrew about understanding Stravinsky’s music,” he says. “It’s been a spectacular experience.”
M’Carthy’s wealth of experience and artistry is critical to this collaboration — which taps into all of it. Known for his work as a playwright, actor, and director, he first gained widespread acclaim for Obaaberima, his one-man show about growing up gay in Ghana, which earned multiple Dora Mavor Moore Awards. His talents span the disciplines – from acting in Shakespearean productions to co-creating Black Boys, a celebrated exploration of Black LGBTQ identities, which was developed and produced in residency at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Selected directing credits include Here Lies Henry (Factory Theatre), Topdog/Underdog (Canadian Stage), Fairview (Obsidian Theatre/Canadian Stage), Death and the King’s Horseman (Stratford Festival) and rihannaboi95 (Young People’s Theatre). And earlier this year, he was honoured with the Pauline McGibbon Award, further solidifying his influence in Canadian theatre.
Sankofa: The Soldier’s Tale Retold marks yet another significant contribution to his already prolific body of work. And equally important, this retelling feels especially relevant and resonant today: “A lot of the struggles that happened during that time with the battalion are still happening now,” M’Carthy explains. “It’s not just happening within the Black community and the white community—it’s actually happening universally.” By reimagining and repopulating a once-Eurocentric work, the production points a way forward: “To bring it back and include people who were not included—just the action of doing the show itself resonates very well now.”
For M’Carthy, Sankofa: The Soldier’s Tale Retold is an act of reclamation and an affirmation of where we come from, with an offering of hope for where we are going in the future. “There is something important about knowing how far we’ve come, the sacrifices that have been made, the work that has been done so that we can get where we are…. If those in the past were able to do that, then imagine what we in the future can do for the generation that is to come.”
Sankofa: The Soldier’s Tale Retold, a reimagining of a work by Igor Stravinsky, runs October 24 – 27, 2024 at the Harbourfront Centre Theatre, presented by Art of Time Ensemble Time in association with The Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School and Koffler Arts. Visit artoftimeensemble.com to reserve tickets.
© Arpita Ghosal, Sesaya Arts Magazine, 2024
