Amaka Umeh
At the time of writing, Amaka Umeh is in rehearsal, as The Witch in the upcoming Soulpepper/Crow’s Theatre co-production of Bad Hats Theatre’s Narnia – based on C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
This past April, Umeh was also at Soulpepper, immersed in preparation for the role of Thought 2 in a Soulpepper multi-partner co-production of American playwright, composer and lyricist Michael R. Jackson’s Pulitzer-and Tony Award-winning musical A Strange Loop.
As part of the Soulpepper promotional lead-up to that show, members of the cast were videoed, responding initially to the same question: what advice would they have for their much younger selves?
Perhaps with her six-year-old self in mind (standing in the bright light of a Lagos stage, bewildered that her audience was sitting in the dark), Umeh had a ready response.
“The advice I would give is, yeah, do it just like that. Perfect. You’re flawless. But also embrace your mistakes, don’t let them define you. Atula egwu. Don’t be afraid.”
It’s advice the younger Umeh seems to have absorbed every step of the way. When she found herself in the spotlight of public awareness as the first woman to play the role of Hamlet at the Stratford Festival in 2022. (She had been asked to audition for both Hamlet and Ophelia). And before that, at Randolph College for the Performing Arts in Toronto, and after that at Stratford’s Birmingham Conservatory. And in three previous Soulpepper shows between 2022 and 2024: Kink in my Hair (2022); Sizwe Banzi is Dead (2023); and Three Sisters (2024). And in life, with all its visibilities and invisibilities.
Further on in that short promotional video for A Strange Loop, Umeh says this about Michael R. Jackson’s work: “I was introduced to the musical a couple of years back, and my mind was blown. Choral music is one of my favourite things. I’m also interested to see how we treat this very real, yes, unsavoury but relevant piece of black history, of queer history, black life, of queer life, and see how we treat that in the room, both for the company inhabiting and responsible for it, and how we treat it for the audience.” (My italics.)
A step down from there, one might assume, to playing The Witch in Narnia six months later. Well, maybe. But then again, maybe not – for a performer who understands their artistic role in a show as being “a member of a company inhabiting and responsible for it”. As the saying goes, there are no small roles, only small actors.
Narnia’s creators at Bad Hats Theatre describe it as “a story about the changing seasons of our lives, found families, and how we learn to say goodbye.” It sounds like an ageless story – and a world worth inhabiting, for the right artist in good company.
David Perlman can be reached at publisher@thewholenote.com
