This brilliant play by Borneo/Australian rapper/poet Omar Musa and American classical musician Mariel Roberts Musa combines poetic storytelling with live music to create a riveting theatrical experience. Omar weaves oral histories and personal narratives, and, accompanied by Mariel’s exquisite cello playing, they create a deeply resonant and haunting seafaring story delivered with extraordinary accomplishment.
The Offering tells the story of a protagonist fleeing a country whose ecology has collapsed under the perils of climate change. Deforestation and its associated logging, clearing and burning have culminated in a ‘climate holocaust.’
The protagonist sets sail across a vast plastic ocean littered with debris. The ocean’s surface brims with discarded bottles, fabrics and other plastic horrors in what is a tragic indictment of humankind’s mass-production of all things synthetic. Despairing, he sails toward a mythical volcano where he hopes to find his own destruction amid its fire and ferocity. On his journey, he encounters items in the ocean that are familiar to him, triggering memories of life before the climate holocaust. Upon reaching the volcano, he discovers something much different, hope and the promise of a world free of borders and constraints.
Omar’s performance is powerful and evocative. He engages the audience, who respond with rapt attention. He likens the ocean to an ‘archipelago of memories’ and moved by what he sees, he tells the boyhood memory of his grandparents and their lopsided jungle shack by the river. His body dances with the words and music, seamlessly attuned. He raps, he sings, performs poetry. His hand movements shift from strong to delicately expressive in an instant, which took this reviewer’s breath away.
Mariel’s cello playing is an emotional kaleidoscope – from bold, to mournful, to raw, to lyrical, she has composed a divine accompaniment to Omar’s spoken word. She becomes so bodily immersed in the piece, it’s like she and her cello become one. At one point, Omar invites the audience to join in some collective breathing. We follow his lead. So does the cello. Its inhalations and exhalations are so authentic, this reviewer found herself in awe at Mariel’s mastery of her instrument.
The Offering successfully intertwines its musical score, oral histories and Omar’s personal narratives in a way that moves the story forward with the sense of urgency it warrants. Contemporary discussion around climate change has never been more important, and The Offering shows us the stark and devastating end reality we, as a planet, are rapidly facing if we refuse to act.
The play looks at memories as a way to effect and recognise change. Lost memories become found in a sea of ecological destruction. Thoughts of earlier and more simple times offer something tangible to hold onto in a world so artificial, so lost, roiling in its own devastation.
The set design reflects and complements the subject matter. It’s a dark stage, interspersed with the blue hues of the ocean; a changing black and white backdrop mirrors and enhances the storyline, and soft lighting transitions beautifully between Omar and Mariel.
The Offering speaks to the audience. And the audience listens.
To book tickets to The Offering, please visit https://riversideparramatta.com.au/whats-on/the-offering/.
Photographer: Phil Erbacher
